A Life Lost
by LovinLife4ever
Summary: Troy and Sharpay are step siblings, but Troy's dad starts sending Sharpay to boarding schools. Troy doesn't understand anything about Sharpay, so when his dad dies and she comes back, needing something from him, can he trust her? Troypay. Trailer up.
1. Trailer

**Okay… this is just an idea, tell me what you think.**

You know the drill…. **Bold** is voice over, _italics_ are actions, and "quotes" are quotes.

**Imagine Living the High Life**

_Shows Troy walking into an empty mansion._

_Shows Troy shooting a basket_

_Shows Troy at a press conference with Gabriella_

**With the spotlight always on you**

_Shows Troy waving politely at cameras_

_Gabriella's voice:_ "Your family is in so tight with those politicians it's almost like you're running for office instead of them"

**But When Something Shakes Up the World You Once Knew**

_Shows Troy talking on the phone, nodding understandingly_

_Shows Troy dressed in black by a tomb stone_

_Shows Troy at another press conference, choking back tears _"My dad… he was all I ever really had."

**And the Past Comes Back to Haunt You**

_Shows a blonde girl walking up to Troy and Gabriella at East High_

"So I hear dear old dad kicked the bucket, huh?"

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"Simple, I never want to see you, your father, or anyone in this damn town again, but in order to do that, I'm going to need a piece of good old dad's fortune."

_Shows Gabriella chasing after Sharpay_

"Stay away from Troy, you don't know what he's been through."

"Yeah… being stuck in the world with nothing but three butlers a mansion, a loving girlfriend and a family fortune must really be hell."

_Shows Troy Talking to Sharpay_

"What are you really here for?"

"I'm here to remind you why no one really misses your dad."

**You're Going To have to Learn to Fight for What You Want**

_Shows Troy and Sharpay eating dinner with each other_

"So would now be a good time to bring up your relationship with Gabriella?"

"I wouldn't call it a relationship…"

"All sex no strings, huh?"

"That… and I have to escort her to events and she has to cheer for me at games and all."

"Um… I'd hate to be the one to break it to you, but that really sounds like a relationship to me."

_Shows Troy making out with Gabriella in the janitor's closet, Troy pulls away_

"I'm sorry… I'm just not into this right now."

"You're never into it anymore Troy… what's going on?"

**Before it All Gets Taken Away**

_Screen goes blank, all you hear are voices_

Sharpay: "Do you even know why your dad adopted me?"

Troy: "This wasn't supposed to happen! Not with you!

Gabriella: "But I love you! Okay? I LOVE YOU!"

Sharpay: "I'm going back to New York Troy… I have to"

Troy: "You want the damn money!? Take it! Take it go back to New York! If that's all you came here for then by all means!"

Sharpay: "I-I… I don't love you."

Gabriella: "She's going to ruin your life Troy… everything that you and your father ever worked for will be gone"

**Staring Vanessa Hudgens**

_Shows Gabriella, smiling and waving to paparazzi_

_Shows Gabriella yelling at Kelsi _

_Shows Gabriella crying, barely dressed in Troy's room as Troy walks away_

**Ashley Tisdale**

_Shows Sharpay flicking off a photographer_

_Shows Sharpay Street racing, obviously in the lead_

_Shows Sharpay on stage with Troy_

**And Zac Efron as Troy Bolton**

_Shows Troy laughing as Sharpay dances around stage, imitating Gabriella_

_Shows Troy leaning in to kiss Gabriella_

_Shows Troy leaning in to kiss Sharpay_

**LovinLife4Ever (somewhat) Proudly Presents**

_Shows Troy and Sharpay fighting_

"I should have known… I wish I never had anything to do with this family!"

**A Life Lost**

**So… what do you think, tell me if you want me to pursue writing this. Okay? Bye.**


	2. Going Home, prologue

**Okay, this is sort of a prologue, because Troy's part takes place before his dad died. I think I already have the next chapter written, I just have to do some major editing but still… I also wanted to start answering reviews, I want to try at least, because you guys totally rock. I also don't want to put too much on my plate so I don't forget my other story but I still I think I can handle it. I kind of have a lot of stuff going on right now with my friends right now that's somewhat unusually dramatic (think like, Degrassi meets the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) so I might not be able to update a lot (though writing is a pretty big stress reliever for me) but I'll try. So here you go: **

_Troy's POV_

I walked around in the empty building, everyone was at the senator's ball, he was promoting some new bill that would apparently 'revolutionize the way that Albuquerque's youth learns'. Which basically means that he was trying to get a few subjects that his friends weren't exactly happy with pulled from the curriculum. I really had nothing to do with it, but my dad was on 'the list' and since this whole thing was apparently about the children, I was dragged into it too. Anyways, I got a mysterious text from Gabriella saying that I was to meet her in the storage room. How she knew where the storage room at the Albuquerque Grand Hotel was…? I have no damn clue. But if it meant I got an excuse to leave the 'kiddy table' with the mayor's eight year old daughter, fine by me. I finally found the storage room. Basically it was the fancy way of saying the janitor's closet. How romantic of her…

As instructed in the text, I knocked on the door to the tune of Breaking Free. Gabriella was under some strange impression that there might be some secret agent who's mission was to video tape and expose the son of the head of Bolton corp. and his girlfriend going at it in the storage closet. I opened the door. "Gabi, it's me." I said quietly.

As soon as I closed the door, I was attacked by my girlfriend, she pinned me against the wall and pressed her lips against mine roughly. She was literally suffocating me. I made a few fruitless attempts at giving her some sort of signal that I wasn't breathing. "Hm…. Gabriella! This is insane." I said, looking around the empty room.

"Oh come on Troy! Relax for a while!" She said, sounding a little too happy. "This is the best party ever! And he guy at the bar didn't even ask my age."

That pretty much explained it. "Gabriella, we've only been here like, half an hour and you've already found your way to the bar?"

Gabriella laughed. "Chill Troy! I'm not _that_ drunk! I won't embarrass you on front of your dad and all those other boring, stuffy, politician guys."

"Yeah, I think it would be best if you didn't call them that to their faces." I said.

"Have a little fun Troy!" Gabriella said, walking up to me, tripping over her own high heels in the process. "You were all over me a Chad's party last night when you got drunk!"

"That was different." I said. I know Gabriella was supposed to be this total and complete braniac, but she was acting like a kindergartner. "That was just a party, this is very important for my dad."

"I know that Troy!" She said, trying her best to give me an 'I'm not stupid' look… it really didn't work out when she was drunk.

"Come on… put yourself back together and we'll go out and meet some people." I said, handing Gabriella her clutch bag, she some how managed to fit her whole makeup studio in that thing.

I sat and waited for about ten minutes before Gabriella was satisfied with her appearance. She had fixed her hair, straightened the ruffles in her plain dark blue dress, and put her matching blazer on over it. "I hate this dress, it makes me look fat." She said, stuffing half a box of tic tacs into her mouth.

I ignored her. "Remember, just smile and say hi, laugh at their jokes, and don't say anything stupid."

"I know the drill Troy, you don't have to treat me like I'm a little kid." She mumbled, she was barely audible since her mouth was still full of tic tacs.

I didn't comment. "Let's just get to the party." I said, carefully guiding her to the ball room and we entered together. It was a long, long night.

_Sharpay's POV (takes place a week after Troy's part)_

I walked down halls with Lacey, my best friend. "So how would you feel about ditching the midterms?" She asked.

"Depends, is there anything worth ditching for?" I asked, opening my locker, I looked in the mirror and adjusted my plaid skirt, I undid the top button of my shirt, and ditched blazer. I fixed my hair, once I was satisfied with my appearance, I pulled a binder and textbook out of my locker.

Lacey smiled excitedly. "I know it's kind of late to start planning something like this, but what if we flew the entire senior class out to Spain for midterm week?"

"It would leave too many finger prints, but that kind of thinking is totally MTV worthy." I said.

Lacey looked discouraged for only a few seconds, but just smiled instead. "What is we found a way to steal all the test forms in the entire building?"

My face brightened. "Perfect! We can pull the fire alarm, get a bunch of the guys to cover for us… we can hack into the school's computer system and delete all the test forms, and we can just figure out where thy keep the paper ones."

Lacey smiled. "We'll get on planning that later, gym class is next period."

"You know, I personally think that gym class is just a way for horny teenage guys to watch girl sweat." I said, closing my locker.

"But really, face it the sweaty guys make it all worth while." Lacey said, putting her hand over her heart dramatically.

"It would be easier to go guy watching without having dodge balls hurled at your head." I said with laugh.

"Good point." Lacey said with a smile.

"_Sharpay Evans, please report to the headmaster's office immediately._" The scratchy voice over the intercom said.

"Oh darn, looks like now I have an excuse to miss gym." I said, turning around. "Start guy watching without me."

"You know I will." Lacey said, walking in the opposite direction.

I walked down the hall to the headmaster's office; he was sitting at his desk, writing something. "Um… hi headmaster Wiggins… you waned to see me?" I asked, all of a sudden becoming aware that I had greatly 'altered' my uniform. I buttoned the top button of my shirt and pulled on the bottom of my skirt, so that it reached the proper length.

"Yes Ms. Evans, I'd think you'd better sit." He said, not looking up.

I sat down and folded my hands on the desk. "If this is about the whole replacing the science video with the first season Desperate Housewives I swear I had nothing to do with it-"

"This has nothing to do with that unfortunate scandal, but if you happen to know anything about it I'd suggest you speak up." He said, finally looking up.

I shrugged. "No info here." I said, relieved that he didn't catch on.

He put his pen down and looked at me. "Well there's no easy way of saying this… but your legal guardian, Michael Bolton has died within the hour."

I smiled. "What do you mean there's no easy way of saying it? I'm not quite seeing the downside here." I said. I was pretty hyped at that moment… my so called 'legal guardian' wasn't exactly my favorite person the world.

"I'm afraid you are sadly mistaken. You see Ms. Evans, because of your record of staying at schools for around two months at a time, Mr. Evans started paying in monthly installments for your tuition. So after his death, you no longer have the resources to pay for this school, the theatre department is offering you a scholarship, but that is barely enough to pay for the rest of the year."

"What are you saying?" I asked.

"We are permitting you a few weeks off of school to come up with the money… but that's all we can permit you." He continued.

"No… no no no no no no no no no no! I like it here! I actually like it here!" I said loudly.

"I understand that Ms. Evans… that's why we're giving you this extra time… you must know that we are bending the rules by doing this." He said.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah… I guess."

"Thank you Ms. Evans. Now, would you like to clean out you locker now or later?" He asked.

"That won't be necessary, I won't be long that long." I said, getting up and leaving. I stormed down the empty halls, this was gong to be very interesting to say the least.

**So did it suck? Did it explain anything in the trailer? Do you totally hate me for making Sharpay a total rebel (but not the stereotypical rebel who drinks beer while leaning on a dumpster type though) and hate her 'dad'?** **youtubesmybff aka chel08, you better not answer any of those (your review for last chapter made me fall out of my chair… I'm being dead serious here). Thanks for putting up with my rant… bye.**

**HA! If you listened to me while I was ranting I told you I'd answer reviews:**

**marri: **Yay! First review! I'm glad you think so.

**Oliver-Love: **I hope this was fast enough… like I said there's been a lot going on for me.

**zashleyrocks: **Troyella? Where did you get that from? I hope that was clarified when I made Gabriella get drunk and hit on Troy at the senator's thingamabob. I hope you don't mind but I'm making her a pretty big bitch in this story…

**youtubesmybff aka chel08: **Read the author's note.I'm lucky that I don't have concrete floors… but thanks anyways… I figured people never read stuff like this because making them 'sort-of-siblings' and making Sharpay hate everything about him is not really a good base for a relationship. The whole 'they were old friends before he/she changed' is kind of played out, I thought I'd try this though, because now I get to use the spiteful sarcastic Sharpay and not the sweet and sensitive one.

**fibi3: **Consider this continued.

**ascii27: **Thanks… hope you like!

**Stessa: **Thanks, it's always hard living up to the trailer (wow... that is so quote of the week right there…)

**Anyways… thanks for reading, Brutally honest review are appreciated!!!**


	3. Family Secret

**Okay… as it turns out, writing seriously helps me block out the real world. Even though everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that is going on with me and my friends got out to the entire school (and for that, I would like to that the guidance counselor who has a kid that goes to our school…) and some idiots are spreading it more. Plus I'm going through a bunch of crap with my friend who is basically in love with my guy friend who she thinks **_**I'm**_** in love with (who I'm not, contrary to popular belief…) so she keeps on getting all weird when I hang out with him which is getting kind of awkward… (Yeah, did I mention I really, really need a blog) Oh, and on another note, someone pointed via review that I spelled Billie Joe from Green Day's name with a Y instead of an IE… I'm such a bad Green Day fan… so I would just like to publicly apologize for not honoring the great band that is Green Day. (For those of you who haven't caught on, you can usually skip over my author's notes.) So here you go…**

**CAUTION: Gabriella uses some pretty bad language in big bold letters, so be warned. **

Troy's POV

"Mr. Bolton! How did you first react to your father's death?" One of the reporters asked. It was one of those press conferences that Al had me do.

I took a deep breath. "I was hurt, but I wasn't surprised, he was sick for a long time, but he wasn't willing to stop working… that was how much he cared about Bolton corp. He was preparing for his death, and in the process he also prepared me for his death, he wanted to make it so we could live without him. My father… he was all I ever really had. He never could have thought how much I miss him now." I felt like I was reading off of cue cards, Al gave me some example answers that would be accepted by the press, I pretty much had to stay stable, but mention love as much as possible.

"Mr. Bolton! Is it true your going to take up the family business?" Another one asked.

"I'm planning on finishing my senior year at East High and going on to college, I actually wanted to go to an art school and maybe try living in Europe for a while… I'm not really the corporate type." I'm guessing that the truth was the wrong answer, because people seemed to be taking elaborate notes on this one.

Al quickly walked up to the podium. "I think what Mr. Bo- Troy meant was that he needs to take some time off from the busy work program that he's currently on. Now please let the young man take a break, he must be broken after all this talk about Michael." Al said, practically pulling me away from the microphones. As soon as we got out of ear shot, Al went into PR agent mode. "Are you out of your mind? People don't want to hear about you and your artsy dreams! They want you to follow in your father's footsteps! You should have shelled out some crap about how this experience inspired you to work harder! Try to raise the standard! Not become a flaky hobo who plays guitar on some California beach!"

I raised my arms I an over exaggerated shrug. "I'm sorry! I didn't know I was supposed to become my dads clone after all of this!"

"Well someone was supposed to fill your dad's shoes! And who do you think that's supposed to be? Me? No! You! Now go take a break elsewhere. And while you're at go think about what you're going to say." He said.

"Fine…" I muttered. I walked down the grounds.

I was well on my way away from all of that shit when I heard someone screaming my name. "TROY! TROY! TROY!"

I turned around, and there, to my surprise, was Gabriella sitting in between two security guards. Her hair was messed up and her makeup (which she clearly wore too much of) was smeared, she had long black streaks lining down her face and you could see every color she had used were in big sloppy circles around the part that they had been applied to. If I wasn't so pissed at that moment, I would have totally laughed. "What the hell Gabi?" I asked.

She glared at me, with her best attempt at a death glare (I'd seen way worse from way more threatening people). "I wasn't on the list." She said quietly and plainly… I could tell that the screaming was going to come next. "AND THERE WERE CAMERAS TROY! FUCKING CAMERAS! ALL FOCUSED ON MY FACE, NOT GETTING INTO THE DAMN PRESS CONFERENCE!"

Okay, someone obviously needed a moment. "Um Gabriella? This was supposed to be a personal family thing only, just people there for moral support." I tried to explain calmly… unfortunately Gabriella didn't quite grasp that concept.

Gabriella's face turned bright red. "OH! AND I'M NOT CAPABLE OF GIVING YOU MORAL SUPPORT!? I'M A SUPPORTIVE, CARING, DOWN TO EARTH GIRLFRIEND! HELL, I'M THE FUCKING AMERICAN DREAM! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY SAYING THAT YOU DON'T WANT ME THERE AT A TIME LIKE THIS? IS THERE SOME CIRCLE I'M NOT IN?"

"Sir, do you want us to let her in?" One of the guards asked.

"No, that won't be necessary, she wasn't invited to his event." I said. I wasn't in the mood for any bull at this moment.

"DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME TROY!" Gabriella screamed. I didn't look back, this was her own doing. She'd get pissed at me tomorrow because she lost her voice right before rehearsal for the musical. And I really didn't want to deal with that.

**xXxXx**

Sharpay's POV

I made my way over the unusually high wall, landing quickly on the grass after the climb. "Hurry up Kels." I said, looking upwards.

"I can't get over this thing." I heard Kelsi saying from the top of the concrete wall. She was sitting on the top, now all she had to do was jump, but it looked like it was going to be a while.

"You're telling me you've never jumped a fence before?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips. "You must have an exceptionally boring life."

"Well sorry that I spent my time in jail interning instead of behind the bars." Kelsi said, finally jumping down and landing on her feet.

"See? Now was that so bad?" I asked, smiling at her. Kelsi and I had made friends when I had just moved to Albuquerque at age twelve, in my opinion she was the only person worth knowing at this town.

"Not really." Kelsi said. "I think I've pretty much lost all my balance what so ever, but hey, as long as no one expects me to operate heavy machinery is the next five to six hours, there should be no threat to civilians."

"Stop being so dramatic." I rolled my eyes and took my sweat shirt off, letting my little black dress fall loosely around my knees. I undid my hair tie and ran fixed my hair a little. "How do I look?" I asked, trading my pair of converse shoes for a pair of delicate looking sling back heels. "I've got to prepare for my grand entrance." I pulled my jean off from exposing my bare legs.

Kelsi collected my discarded clothes from the ground and stuffed it into our bag. "Okay, I understand why you'd want some of the Bolton money, to go back to Brooklyn and all that junk, but what do you need Troy Bolton for?"

"Um, duh Kels, he's the recipient of good old dad's entire cash cow, and since he's a legal adult, if I want enough money to go back to PJA I'll have to get it from him." I explained.

"Okay, I get it now." Kelsi said, nodding her head. "But Troy's a nice guy… it's not like you're going to like, use him or anything… are you? Because I wouldn't really be… okay with that." Kelsi twisted her fingers uncomfortably.

I rolled my eyes… again. "You've been hanging around with those drama club freaks for far too long, this isn't Cruel Intentions, all I'm going to do is hit him up for enough money for senior year and go."

"Okay… I guess that's pretty much harmless." Kelsi said, calming down a little bit.

"Okay, I'll catch up with you later. Go have fun with the politicians." I said sarcastically, waving as I walked away, now all I had to do was find the only teenager within the premises.

**xXxXx**

I looked around the empty cleaning closet… no one. I dug around in my pocket until I found a small bag. I know what you must be thinking… yeah, the perfect teenage son, getting high in a closet. It wasn't like I was a big time user or anything… but it was just that some days sucked more than others… and this was one of those days that really, really sucked. I pulled out a lighter and lit the joint. As soon as some emerged, I lifted it to my lips and took a puff. It was sort of relieving in a really weird way, like the problems were still there… but it was just that everything was too blurred for anything to get through to my head.

After a while I was totally baked, and I knew I couldn't go back out there. The door opened and a somewhat blinding light poured into the dark room. "Troy?" The voice asked.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, stumbling backwards, knocking over a mop and broom in the process. I looked at the shadowy silhouette and saw that it was a girl… not one of those short, hunched over, government ladies… a young, beautiful girl. "Gabriella?" I called out to the figure.

"No… I'm your- wait… are you high?" The figure asked, she got closer and I saw that she wasn't Gabriella, she was a taller and thinner… and her hair was blonde. I heard a strange noise, getting louder, it as… laughing? "Imagine that, the good kid getting high, the old man would just returning in his grave if he was aware of this."

The laughing got louder and it felt like the room was getting darker. The laughing stopped, and I though I heard the faint sound of her voice. "Wait… Troy, are you okay?"

**xXxXx**

I woke up in a bright room… too bright. I turned my head, there was someone in the bathroom shower. I just laid there for a while, listening to the sound of the running of the water. When the water stopped, I waited more. Eventually I heard the door open, and out stepped the girl from the cleaning closet.

I cleared my throat. "At this point, it would be kind of nice if you'd tell me where we are… and who you are."

The girl tuned around. "Oh look, the golden boy's up." She said with a smirk. "We're at the Marriot. And you got stoned... big time."

Yeah… that explained so much. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, don't worry, the paparazzi didn't figure it out, I couldn't just leave you there I didn't want people to think that I drugged you or something, so I snuck you out back." She shrugged.

"Thanks…" I said, not knowing what else to say. "So… what were you doing at the press conference."

The girl scoffed and crossed her arms. "Oh my god… are you seriously flirting…? With me? I mean they said you were sort of pathetic you came off as kind of weak… but this?"

"Pathetic? Who said that? And weak? Why would you think that about me if we just met?" I sat up. "Wait… did we…?"

"Ha! You wish." She laughed, pushing a few strands of wet curls out of her face. "And by the way, we didn't just meet."

"What?" I asked, standing up and walking towards her.

"I said that this isn't the first time we've met." She said.

"Wait… were you that girl from Jason's party?" I asked, freaking out a little. "Look, I was really, really drunk, and I didn't mean for it to go that far at all… so can we just forget about it because I don't want you to feel like-"

"Whoa! That wasn't me… and if you wouldn't mind please stop before I get mental images." The girl said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "I'm really not someone directly associated with you…." She said, looking away. "I'm really more of your dad's problem."

I gave her a disgusted look. "Wait… were you and my dad… going out?"

"Hell no!" The girl said loudly. She took a few steps closer to me, her hair was still dripping from her shower. "I'm Sharpay."

"Sharpay…" I repeated, there was only one Sharpay, and I couldn't believe that this was her.

**DUN DUN DUN… what a classic soap opera ending, it'll all be explained next chapter, which I will start writing momentarily. If I don't update soon blame my history teacher and her cruel and unusual test of doom that she's making us take… if school wasn't complicated enough without having to learn too… but still, writing is like my shield from the wrath of suburbia, I find that if you bury yourself in fiction reality seems to take a short break from torturing you (cheesy but true, all you fellow writers back me up on this one… or at least don't call me out on it)… so I'll be writing a lot for now… bye.**

** Sorry, no review replies today... I've got to go study for the evil history test of doom.  
**


	4. The puppydog face

**This isn't really that great of a chapter, but I'm almost done with the chapter after this so I'll be updating soon... Wow... no rants today. Well... bye.**

Troy's POV

I looked at Sharpay, genuinely confused. It was like everything was explained, why she was back… why she hated me so much… how she knew I as 'the golden boy'. "Why are you here?" Were the only words I could think to say.

Sharpay sighed and stood up. "Look, I don't want to be here just as much, if not more than you don't want me here." She said, stepping back a little bit. "But unfortunately, I can't get out of your face until I can get back to my happy little world in Brooklyn, but apparently, dear old dad had no intentions of leaving me there after he was gone, so now I just need some way to get back there."

"What are you talking about?" I asked. My mind jus wasn't registering at this point, I mean, the last time I saw her was when I was like, fourteen… of course IO read about her and all, I saw her in the tabloids and everything (you don't know how many guys asked me for her number), but she was like a celebrity, she didn't know nor did she care about the little people. She didn't come popping up to visit.

I could tell this wasn't easy for her. She looked away uncomfortably. "If I'm going to finish senior year there… I would have been relying on whatever your dad left me to finish the year there… unfortunately, he didn't leave me anything at all."

My brain finally put the pieces together. "So you need me to give you the money? Is that really all you came here for?" I asked, my confusion turning to anger. "Now? In the middle of all of this? You know, you spent a lot of your life trying to screw over my dad… now that he's one, can't you just leave him alone?" I asked, trying not to cry… it would have totally made me seem way more pathetic.

"Hey! You have no clue what your dad did to me! He ruined my life!" She screamed, no longer bothering to try to kiss up to me.

"You've been saying that for the past six years! The man adopted you for crying out loud! Why do you hate him so much?" I asked.

"Okay, I know he's your dead old man and all, and you have to defend him…. but you have no idea what happened six years ago so don't even try to pretend like you do." She said, turning to walk away, but then she stopped. "Oh, and by the way, your dad wasn't the saint you think he is... in fact, just ask anyone, he wasn't a hero, in fact your dad was a straight up jackass."

I couldn't even say anything. That was the last thing I needed to hear right now. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I just stood there… on the verge of tears. I looked up at Sharpay. And strangely enough, I didn't see the icy, perpetually angry Sharpay that I was used to. This Sharpay actually looked… guilty. "Look Troy I didn't mean for it to sound so…" I didn't bother listening to whatever else she had to say. Soon I was walking away from the room, then I was running. Even though I had no clue where was or where I was going, I just had to get out of there.

xXxXx

Sharpay's POV

I collapsed on the bed in Kelsi's room. "So I'm guessing the hole Troy thing didn't work out so well." Kelsi said from her mirror, where she was busy trying to pop a zit on the left side of her chin.

"It went just about as well I did at that boarding school in Milwaukee." I said, putting my hands over my face.

Kelsi laughed. "I remember that, on our first day you exposed a teacher student dating scandal via intercom. I hope you don't mind me using that sometime in a script or something."

I sat up. "Okay, first of all, I have bigger things to worry about than that, and second of all, for the record, it was their own fault for forgetting to tell me not to press the little red button."

"Whatever." Kelsi said, still trying to pop that zit. "What I don't get is why do you still feel so bad bout it? I've never seen you liked this…"

"I know… but it never wouldn't have happened if he didn't go all sad puppy on me, I mean usually, when I say stuff like that, people yell back at me, or threaten to get me expelled or something along those lines. He cried, I mean, he actually was about to cry. And he ran… I don't know, he made me want to go hug him or… apologize." I scrunched up my face.

"No worries, Troy has that effect on people. He's just that kind of guy. It's like pathetic… only it works for him." Kelsi said, finally turning around.

"No one can make pathetic work. I've seen people try. It just ends up looking like a five year old who just got put in time out." I said, crossing my arms.

"Not Troy… he's just that good, I mean, even though you totally dominated the world of posh parties and private schools, he's lived in it too." Kelsi said, sitting down next to me.

"Damn sad puppy." I mumbled, before getting up. "I've got to go Kels. I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay. Tell me how it all works out." Kelsi called.

I nodded and left… this was all so foreign to me, I couldn't believe that the son of the guy I hated so much was making me feel so… bad.

xXxXx

Troy's POV

It was Monday. And I still couldn't stop thinking about Sharpay… it was like I felt like I was supposed to hate her, but at the same time, it was like I wanted to ask her if she was okay, which was really dumb considering she was the one who was calling my dad a jackass. But still, she did save me from a very memorable moment with the paparazzi back at the press conference, and before I knew who she was she was pretty interesting… and as you can guess, these weren't the best thoughts to be running through my head in the middle of math class. I was only pulled out of my thoughts when I heard the bell ring.

"Hey Troy!" I heard a high pitched voice call.

I turned around quickly. "Sharpay?" I asked.

But to my relief/disappointment, it wasn't her. "What's a Sharpay?" Gabriella asked, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. "Never mind that, I'm so sorry for what happened at the press conference… I should have been way more sensitive to your condition." She said, making it a little too obvious that she had practiced this in her mirror for a half an hour before school. "So, can we just forget about everything I said?"

"Yeah… sure, whatever." I said, pushing her arms off of my shoulders.

"Are you okay Troy? I mean… ever since Saturday you've been sort of… I don't know… spaced out. Was it something I said? Because you know I didn't mean a word of it." She said, leaning against the locker next to mine as I twisted the dial.

"It's not you, Gabriella, it's no big deal… I've just got a lot on my mind right now… you understand that right? Because that's it." I said, looking at her, all of a sudden comparing her to Sharpay in my mind… Sharpay was definitely taller than Gabriella, and slightly more slender… but there was also something else different about them… Sharpay seemed more confident… way fiercer than Gabriella ever was, like she was ready if anyone randomly decided to fight her. With Gabriella…. It was like she was leaning on me, like if I just decided to break up with her at this moment… she'd have nothing. Then the thoughts of me leaving Gabriella drifted across my mind, I shook it off though, Gabriella and I were like, set in stone… unchangeable. And if we ever did decide to break up… the school wouldn't accept it. But it wasn't like that was going to happen anytime soon anyways, so it was just a waist of time thinking about it.

"Good, I'm just you don't have to take any time off of school, I mean, we have to practice for the school musical and everything." Gabriella squealed excitedly.

"But we haven't even auditioned yet…" I pointed out.

Gabriella rolled her eye at me. "Even if there was anyone in this school good enough to stand even a half a chance at getting the leads, they wouldn't dare going against us."

This was sad… but true. But Gabriella didn't have to be so blunt about it. I mean, I guess I wasn't quite okay with Gabriella being so… well… bitchy about everything. But it wasn't like I could do anything about that… I mean that kind of stuff only happens in Disney movies made for tween girls. So I just let it happen, which I wasn't necessarily okay with either, but still, this was jut another one of those things where it wasn't like I had much of a choice.

Gabriella tapped me on my shoulder, forcing me to focus back on her. "Troy… can we use free period to rehearse? I asked Miss Darbus if we could use the stage, she said it touched her how dedicated we were to getting the parts! Anyways I was thinking about adding choreography to our routines because the whole girl-next-door-meet-basketball-star thing is getting kind of played out, so I thought we should make it more exciting, you know? Wait, Troy? Are you even listening?"

"Huh?" I looked up at her. "Oh… yeah, choreography is fine… whatever, but I can't do free period, I have this huge history paper to work on, and I won't pass this class if I don't get a good grade on this. So… I can't really just blow it to practice for the auditions." I said, with my best, 'sorry, you'll just have to stick it out without me' look.

Gabriella looked at me as if I was the most pitiful thing she had ever seen. "Listen Troy, with all he things going on in your life, I understand that you'd want to bury yourself in work… but I really need you for this musical… I mean think about it Troy, this is our senior year musical! This is the one that everyone is going to be referring back to for the rest of our lives! This isn't something to be taken as lightly as you think Troy, this is a very, very big thing for the both of us Troy, you shouldn't let yourself get in the way of that."

That was so incorrect in so many ways. First of all, burying myself in my work? I wasn't burying myself in my work, I was trying to pass senior year. And frankly, doing this musical did seem like more work than writing that paper at his point. I mean, it was fun freshmen year when it was just for fun… but it had seriously turned into a total chore, there were no more laughs, no more kidding around. Now it was all hardcore work, which totally terminated the point. "Sorry Gabs, can't afford to bomb this paper." I said plainly with a shrug.

Gabriella dropped the whole sympathetic thing and gave me an angry look. "Troy, you know how important this is to me… and don't worry about that dumb paper, I'll write the dumb paper for you if it's that big a deal to you. Just show up in the auditorium in free period. Okay?"

"Fine…" I said, not particularly satisfied with this out come, but if it meant getting a good grade on my paper my paper then I was down.

Gabriella's face lifted back to a smile. "Okay! I'll see you free period!" She said perkily and walked away. I could tell, this wasn't really going to be that great of a day.

**Okay, I personally didn't like how I wrote that one... but I'll have a better one coming up, I think I can finish it by tomorrow. So... yeah. Wow... still no rants. Well... bye.**

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	5. What you never knew

**Okay.. I know I said I'd update yesterday, but my computer was being really stupid and not uploading the chapter, but it's working now... so yeah. **

Troy's POV

Have you ever just felt like banging your head against a wall until you pass out? Yeah, that's my fourth period geometry class personified. I mean, it was bad enough that the teacher seemed to enjoy torturing those of us who obviously would rather be somewhere else. I mean, if you were going to punish us for not being totally excited at the idea of using a bunch of big numbers to learn things that you won't use unless you want to go into on specific career. Imagine how thankful I was when the office called me down. I walked down to the front office as slowly as I possibly could.

"Did you call me down-" I started. "Sharpay? What are you doing here?" I asked.

There she was. Just sitting there, right on front of me. She stood up and rolled her eyes. "Congratulations… you managed to get me all guilty about asking you for money." She said, I couldn't help but notice that it really sounded like she meant it. "So I'm breaking you out of here."

"Huh?" I asked.

"I told the office that there was a family emergency. So we're ditching the rest of the day." She told me.

"So you just… assumed that I'd jut drop everything and ditch school with you?" I asked her.

She raised her eye brows at me. "So you're _not_ coming?" She asked.

That was a good question. It was weird, like something was pulling me to say yes. But at the same time, I had common sense pulling me back. It was a pretty close call, but I finally made up my mind. "Where are we going anyways?"

Sharpay's face melted into a smile. "Just follow me." She said and started walking. My first instinct was to run in the opposite direction, but for some reason, when she turned around and asked "Are you coming?" I ran and followed her.

xXxXx

"Where the hell are we going?" I asked Sharpay. I was sitting in the passenger seat of her porche. And we were going somewhere that she refused to tell me. I had lived in Albuquerque y entire life and I still had no clue where we were going. I guess I really hadn't been anywhere unless one of my dad's friends was there or something.

"I told you, you'll see when you get there." Sharpay said, obviously getting pretty ticked off. "And can you please stop asking, you're making it kind of hard for me to feel bad for you when you're so damn annoying all the time."

"Just tell me where you're taking me then I promise I'll stop asking questions." I said, turning to look at her.

"I told you it was going to be a surprise." She said, gritting her teeth. "Can your tiny lunk-head-basketball-player-with-no-regard-whatsoever-of-anyone-else's-personal-sanity brain not grasp that?"

"My normal sized brain can grasp that… but I just would like to know where you're taking me so I can mentally brace myself for whatever you have planned." I snapped back at her, crossing my arms.

"Look, are you trying to get yourself thrown out of the car onto the streets fifty miles away from home?" Sharpay asked, stopping at a red light.

I rolled my eyes and leaned back I my seat. "Fine." I muttered. But really… this was one step up from being stuck in a car with Gabriella. Because at least Sharpay could go ten minutes without mentioning how fat Casey Donahue looked in the mini skirt that Gabriella didn't have enough money to buy.

"We're here." Sharpay pulled up in a parking lot after a few minutes. "See? Now was spending like, ten seconds without asking where we're going really that hard?"

I tried to hide a smile. "Whatever. Now can you tell me where we are… or do you have to drug me or knock me out first?" I joked.

"As for the 'drugging' thing, I'm sure you can do that all on your own." Sharpay rolled her eyes at me. "And as for the rest, I was going to tell you where we were, but at this point I wouldn't really mind knocking you out. So you can take your pick." Sharpay said, she unbuckled her seat belt and opened her door.

"I think I'll just let you tell me where we are." I said, opening my door.

"We're at Jasper's Wonderland." She said.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Where? Because to me it sounds kind of like pedophile hotspot."

"You're telling me that you've never been there before?" Sharpay asked. I just shrugged and shook my head. She put her hands on her hips and looked at me (once again) as if I was insane. "This was the hottest ditch spot in junior high! Everyone's been here. It was like, an East Middle School social cult initiation ritual."

"I wasn't really allowed to go to places like this… my dad would have blown a fuse and it would have somehow ended up on the nine o'clock news." I said, putting my hands in my pockets. For some reason, I was embarrassed that I hadn't been to Jasper's whatever. I mean, I kind of wanted to impress her, because I knew that she already thought that I was a total square. It wasn't exactly helping that I hadn't been to the one place that everyone who was anyone had been.

"Well that didn't stop me, now did it? See, for you, he would have just taken away your allowance and had you make some bogus public apology, for me he would have shipped me off to some boot camp in Canada." She said with a smile.

"What is this place anyways?" I asked, in my best attempt at changing the subject successfully, I never really liked when Sharpay talked about all the stuff she did… it was just that she always seemed like she was so proud of everything that she did… even when she got dragged out by the cops she was still proud. And it kind of messed me up because when everyone was telling me 'you really are the kid every parent dreams of and the teenager every kid dreams of being' because I secretly wished I could be like Sharpay… she was like a superhero to me, though I'd never admit it.

"Jasper's is an amusement park. Rumor has it that a kid died screaming on the big rollercoaster." She said and smiled in her twisted delight.

I almost felt like puking just thinking about it. "I've… I've never actually been to one of these places before." I admitted, looking down, preparing myself for the laughter and cruel jokes.

"I anticipated this." Sharpay said. And she handed me a few airsick bags. "Think of it this way, they always make good souvenirs."

I had to laugh at that. "I think I'll make it without the airsick bags."

"Wow… someone's taking their first risk, I'm so proud." Sharpay said, pretending to wipe a tear away from her face dramatically.

"So how do we get in?" I asked.

"Well, admission is only eight dollars, but if you're really feeling lucky we can jump the fence in the back." Sharpay said. "It really isn't that hard as long as you can dodge getting stabbed by the nails."

"I've got twenty bucks on me… I think I'll take the entrance that doesn't require getting a tetanus shot." I said, rolling my eyes. "Want me to buy your ticket For you? I don't mind."

"No thanks." Sharpay said, with a large smile. "I already had my tetanus shot."

**xXxXx**

I laughed as we exited the park. "I can't believe I've never tasted funnel cake before." I said, recalling the sweet taste that I'd loved so much.

"I can't believe you asked that five year old kid if you could have the rest of his." Sharpay said, passing by her car.

"Um… aren't you going to get in the car?" I asked.

"Nah… want to walk for a while?" She asked. "There's a lake a few blocks away from here."

I smiled. "Sure… why not." I caught up and started walking along side her.

"So… I'm dying to know, what is your deepest darkest secret?" She asked, giving me a smile. "I mean… besides the whole drugs thing."

"I'm not telling… because I know, somehow it'll end up on CNN." I said with a laugh.

"Oh come on… I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." She said. "Besides, who would I possibly tell?" She asked, feigning innocence perfectly.

I smiled. "Fine…" I said, with a laugh. Reluctantly start "Remember how when you were thirteen, you lost your Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD box set?"

Sharpay laughed. "Yeah, I spent like, two months looking for that… wait… are you saying that you took it?" She asked.

"It's been under my bed for the past five years." I said, blushing heavily. "I still watch it when I get depressed. Something about Buffy… it's just so calming."

"I just can't believe you stole them, you should have told me sooner! I blamed the house keeper for that!" She said, putting her face in her hands.

"You mean Margaret? Ugh… I hated her so much, she kept on using dad's cell phone to call personal psychics." I said, scrunching up my face at the memory.

"Really? I always thought that was you." She said, now smiling again. "Now I don't feel so guilty about getting her fired."

"What did you do?" I asked her.

"Yeah… remember when our dad started funding that Wholesome Homes foundation thing?" She asked.

"How could I forget? We had to practically be the Brady Bunch for like, a year." I said, recalling the painful memory.

"That may have been partly because I exposed a scandal between him and good old Margaret via youtube." She said, returning to her regular old proud self.

"Are you serious? How come my dad never told me anything about this?" I asked, almost wanting to laugh, but then feeling bad about it, because dad was… you know… well, dead. I didn't really have to mourn him, I mean, we weren't exactly the closest father and son… I mean, we never really 'hung out' other than when we were talking about our public image.

"Troy… your dad was going to pay Chad's parents to give you the talk for him, I don't think he was quite ready to walk up to you and say 'Hey son! I was screwing around with the house keeper that you hate and now it's all over the internet, so we have to start acting lie total saints so that he public will star thinking that we're perfect again.'"

"Strangely enough, I would rather have heard that then whatever crap my dad shoved down my throat." I paused, thinking about that for a while. "So… what was your deep dark secret?"

Sharpay laughed softly. "When I was really little… my mom used to work in the city, and she'd always see all these signs for pageants that offered these cash prizes. Long story short, you're talking with Little Miss Red Ribbon ages four through seven."

I laughed. "You? Pageants? You don't participate in those kind of things… you protest those things. Weren't you a skater before we adopted you?" I had to smile at the thought of Sharpay wearing one of those leotards twirling batons… then again I really didn't mind the image of that one… wait, what was I saying? I shook it off and looked over at Sharpay.

"I was a skater… hence the end of my pageant career." Sharpay said. "I mean, in the pageant world, having a bruise on your knee and explaining that you fell off a half pipe is heavily frowned upon."

"Wow… you've officially done everything." I said with a small laugh. "I hope you know that I'm never going to let you live that down."

"Fine by me… Troy the Vampire Slayer freak." Sharpay countered.

"That is so unfair!" I laughed. "Okay, I'll tell you what, I'll keep your secret if you keep mine."

"Deal." Sharpay said. I nodded and looked out to the lake… the sun was just about to set and the surface of the lake was shimmering. I took a few steps closer to the lake… I'd been to London, Japan, Spain, and a bunch of other places, but I'd been there with my father… therefore ruining the effect. But I'd never really seen anything like this. "You've never been here before… have you?"

I turned around. "Huh? Oh… no, actually, this is the first time that I've been near an actual lake… you know, one that you can swim in without catching a disease."

Sharpay smiled big. "Then let's get closer." She said, walking down to the dock. "Are you coming?" She turned and asked.

I quickly caught up with her, by the time I got there, Sharpay was already sitting on the edge of the pier, dipping the toe of her converse shoe into the lake. I sat down next to her, after a moment of complete and total silence, I decided to ask her something. "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." She said, leaning back on her hands. "Let me guess… it's about the drugs, right? Don't worry I won't tell… I figure you've already briefed on the whole anti-drug thing, you know the risk you're taking, so why should I bother telling you?"

"Actually… that wasn't it. But that's good to know." I said… and it was, I mean, if it was Gabriella, she'd find a way to get the press in on it and have an intervention that way people would still think of her as the supportive girlfriend. "What I was going to ask was… what happened before we adopted you?"

At first, I was afraid of what she would say, but then I saw that she was getting ready to tell me. "Your dad never told you any of this… you now what he did for a living right?"

"He-" I thought for a second. "I really don't know." I admitted with a shrug.

"I'm sure there's some big fancy word for it, but basically, he pretty much helped rich people get rid of competition." Sharpay looked down. "My dad was writing an article about your dad… what he did and everything. And your dad made it his personal mission to take him down for it. The article never got published… and within a month, my dad lost his position on the paper, we had to give up our house, and everything. Three months later my dad committed suicide, my mom and my brother were both really sick… we didn't have enough money for medication and they both died." She stopped and wiped a tear away from her eye. "Your dad thought that it might have been a little controversial, if it got out. So he figured it would all go away if he adopted me-"

"And he never told me about it." I finished. "Look, Sharpay, I'm so sorry."

"No… it's okay." She said flatly. "It really wasn't your fault… I shouldn't have blamed you for it all this time." Awkward silence. I just stared at Sharpay… I couldn't believe was hearing, that the man that I had been mourning all of this time had caused another man to kill himself… All of a sudden, Sharpay stood up.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

She didn't say anything back… she just dove into the lake, fully clothed. At first, I stood up and looked into the water, trying to see if she was okay. But then her head bobbed up from the water and there was a huge smile on her face. "What are you waiting for?" She asked. "The water is so great." She said, leaning back so she was floating. I smiled down at her… then jumped in.

**Awe... isn't that cute? Someone asked me what happened to Ryan, and he's gone :( it was so hard for me to make the decision to kill him off, for a while I was toying with the idea of just putting him in a coma and having Sharpay find him later on in the story, but that was a really cheesy idea so I dropped it. Someone also asked me why Troy's dad was such a jackass... if you read the chapter I really don't have to explain myself on that one. Okay, so I won't make any promises about when I'm going to update but it should be soon. I'm still going through some personal crap that might take some time to sort out, but still, I spend a lot of my time writing, so I should be okay on that. Well... I've got to go now... so bye.  
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	6. Not so vanilla after all

**Okay... sorry I haven't updated in a while... flu season is a bitch (pardon my language) and my entire family is sick (my four year old little brother included, I love him to bits and all but I draw the line at him puking all over me right before picture day). So let the happy Troypayness begin. Oh... and Gabriella swears more in this chapter also... what can I say? Making her a psycho is fun, though I can never top the rant that I made her have in chapter two... **

Sharpay's POV

I laughed as I drove Troy back to his house. Troy smiled as I pulled into his driveway. "That was seriously the most fun I've ever had." He said.

"Isn't that kind of clichéd?" I asked, leaning back in the seat.

" I know… it's true though." He said. "I mean, look at us." He laughed. It was true, we looked pretty hilarious. We were both completely soaked, the sun had dried us out a little, but we were still pretty wet.

"I guess your right." I said with a smile. "But for the record, that wasn't the most fun I've ever had."

"I know, but I'm still trying to get used to the whole 'living in the moment' thing. I'm not quite at the bank robbing level yet." Troy said with a laugh. "I still can't believe I ditched half a day of school." He said.

"You ditched school?" I heard a voice call. I turned and saw a brunette girl standing at the door step. She looked really, really pissed. I almost laughed when I saw her, she looked like she had been sitting there for a pretty long time. "You ditched school and you didn't even bother to tell me? I waited all of free period in the auditorium and I looked like a total flake on front of Darbus! Do you know how hard I worked to get us that stage time? And what about the choreography? Did you completely lose our mind? And look at you! You're all wet! Well… SAY SOMETHING!"

Okay, I couldn't resist laughing at that part, but could you blame me? Honestly… this girl was a freaking psychopath, it almost made me appreciate the nuns at the last catholic school I attended. I looked at Troy. I could tell, he wanted to laugh, but he was trying to hide it. "Gabriella… what are you doing here?"

The girl seemed to get angrier. "What am I doing here? I must have misheard you, Troy. Because news flash! I'm your girlfriend, and like a girlfriends, I want to be informed about what is going on in my boyfriend's life. So I thought I'd just roll on by your house and see I you were okay… but no! You were out with his bimbo and you didn't even tell me about it! So I waited here for five fucking hours Troy! And do you even bother to apologize? No! All you can do is ask me what I'm doing here! And another thing, who the hell is she?" The girl (apparently Gabriella) asked, gesturing to me. All of a sudden, her face became angrier, and she walked over to Troy, literally pulled him out of my car, and slapped him across the face. Okay… it was really hard not to laugh at this. I'm just being honest here, but I knew I shouldn't, I mean, I didn't want to be the next victim of her little spaz attack.

"What the hell was that Gabi?" Troy asked, lifting his hand to his face.

Gabriella looked like she was about to turn into the Hulk right before our very eyes. "Are you cheating on me with this tramp? I should have totally known! So… how long has this been going on for… a month? Two? Three? Have you two been seeing each other since we got together in Junior High!?"

Okay… I couldn't hold it back now. I had to laugh at that. "Okay… we're not dating. Not remotely… I'm his stepsister. I've only been here for like, two days. And just between you and me, I wouldn't date him anyways. Not that I have a problem with your choice in boyfriend…. he's just so… vanilla, and I'm more of a mint chocolate chip kind of girl myself."

Gabriella blushed. "Oh… my god I'm so sorry. I didn't mean a single word of that." She said, looking down. "I was just… so worried about Troy, you've got to understand that, right? Haven't you felt that way about someone before?"

This was a classic case of a self conscious girl marking her territory. It was actually kind of sad. But of course I couldn't say that to her face, I mean, for all I knew this girl could stab me or something. So I just shrugged. "I get it, I was all lovey-dovey like that once… but it didn't end so well so now it just makes me want to puke." I said, putting my hands back on the wheel. "So I should probably get going now."

"Um… yeah, I'll see you later Sharpay." Troy said with a small smile, he was still wincing because of that slap. I figured now wouldn't be the best time to start laughing again so I just restarted the car and left. Smiling at myself for no apparent reason.

**xXxXx**

Troy' POV

Okay, do I even have to start explaining how embarrassed I was after that whole episode with Gabriella? I mean, she literally accused me of cheating on her with my stepsister. And it wasn't so good that my stepsister pretty much already thought I was well… a total waste of oxygen. But I really didn't get what she said right before she left… something about being like that with someone once or something? What was she talking about? Whatever… anyways, I was in my room, I had told Gabriella that I had a killer headache and that we would just have to practice tomorrow. She pretty much left after that… though she did seem kind of pissed.

When I got home, I tried to get to bed but I just couldn't sleep... I was to busy thinking about Sharpay... how quickly she had dismissed the idea of us being together... how she had called me 'too vanilla for her'... did she seriously mean it? Or was she just saying it for Gabriella's sake? God, I hoped it was the second one. Not that I really cared... right?

The point is that the next day I was dead tired. I almost slept through biology of class, and it didn't really help that the entire time Gabriella was passing me notes that were reminding me not to skip school so that we could practice during free period, since she still had to show Ms. Darbus that she wasn't a flaky person, proving that even when she wasn't talking she was the most annoying person in New Mexico. I just wanted to be left alone for like, two seconds. But apparently that was too much to ask from her.

All day I was just wishing that Sharpay would show up and ask me to ditch with her again, maybe show me another place I'd been missing out on. Only she didn't come, I was just stuck in school, being forced to listen to basically the entire student population going all 'dude, where were you all of yesterday?' or 'man, you totally missed it at lunch when one of the skaters started talking to the orchestra freaks about his violin solo! It was hilarious!' So I just nodded and pretended to listen.

Finally the school day ended, now all I had to do was get home. Only, on m way out I heard a very shrill voice calling my name. "Troy! Where are you going?"

I turned around, praying that it wasn't who I thought it was. No such luck. "Gabriella? What are you talking about?" I asked.

"You forgot? I can't believe you forgot!" Gabriella said, she took a deep breath, then grabbed my hand and pulled me in the opposite direction. "Today is the auditions for the musical! We're already ten minutes late! I can't believe you forgot!" She said, dragging me towards the auditorium.

At this point, I started mentally hitting myself on the head for forgetting that those stupid audition things were today. I really didn't know why we bothered showing up for those things, I mean, we always go the leads, and Gabriella always freaked out right before them even though we were total shoe ins. "We only go on at like, three thirty, why do we have to be there now?"

"Because, Troy, we're going to have to scope out the competition if we're going to get the leads." She said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She started walking a little faster and squeezing my hand harder as if my question had somehow angered her.

"Is anyone even going out for the same parts as us?" I asked. "And can you stop pulling me? My arm is about ready to separate from the rest of me."

"Troy, this school is full of spotlight stealers. Don't be so naïve about it. I mean, this is our senior year school production. This is the one everyone is going to be looking at! We just have to scope out the competition... just do us both a favor and don't screw this up!" She said, taking a deep breath. "Okay, let's get in there we really didn't spend enough time rehearsing, because someone thought that spending quality time with their stepsister than both of our futures. But we can do this."

Typical... this was basically her way of coping if we didn't get the leads... blaming it on me. I rolled my eyes. "Look, can we just get this over with?" I asked.

Gabriella gave me a look, but she opened the door anyways. Inside, the auditions were already started. Some of the drama freaks were already on stage, dancing around to the choral piece. Ms. Darbus was clapping her hands to the beat. "Brilliant... simply marvelous my dears... okay, that's quite enough. Now for the lead auditions. Troy and Gabriella... is that it? Oh, well. Let them perform."

"That's our cue." Gabriella whispered, pulling my hand towards the stage.

I followed her, until I saw a face in the very back of the auditorium. "Sharpay?" I asked, letting go of Gabriella's hand and stepping closer to her. "What are you doing here?"

She looked up and smiled. "Oh... hey Troy. I'm just waiting up for Kelsi. She's stuck doing this whole drama club thing. So what are you doing here?"

I looked around, thinking of a way t explain the situation that would make me seem less... well... fem (A/N no offence to anyone who likes or participates in musicals). "I... um..."

"Troy! Get up here, this is our cue!" Gabriella said into her microphone on stage.

I turned, I could tell Sharpay was trying to stifle a laugh. "Yeah... you better get up there. I mean, you wouldn't want to miss your audition, now would you?" She said, letting a small laugh slip out.

I was about to say something when I heard Gabriella screaming into her microphone again. "TROY! Get up here!" I looked back at Sharpay, whose smile had changed to a smirk, then ran up to the stage. Gabriella nodded at Kelsi, who started playing a slow balled. "No... actually we practiced tat a much different pace... try double time." Kelsi started playing the piano again... this time faster. "Much better." Gabriella said with a huge smile.

At first I looked out into the audience. Or more specifically... I looked at her. She still looked like she was about to laugh. But When Gabriella nudged me, signifying that this was my cue. "I never thought, that I'd find, someone like you to hold on to."

Gabriella stepped on front of me, obviously showing off to Darbus. "And I never thought, you'd find your way to my heart, but now I've got you, to hold on to." She sang. I'll admit, the girl could sing... but it was all so corny... like none of it was real.

We stepped together, going into a flawless harmony. "So just open your, and may you'll find, our two hearts will combine." She grabbed my hand. "And when we're together, I'll never deny-"

"Stop! Stop the music! This isn't right at all!" I turned and saw Kelsi standing up and staring straight at us. "I'm sorry Troy, but this isn't right at all. This is a slow song it's not supposed to be so... peppy!"

"What the hell are you doing Kelsi? Look, I'm free to audition however I want to, and after I get the part I'm requesting a say in the creative aspects of this year's musical." Gabriella said crossing her arms.

"When you get the part? Try if." Kelsi said. When did she get all confident?

"Well who else is going to get the part if not me? Are you going to get up here and sing?" Gabriella asked and laughed.

Kelsi looked like she was about to explode. "No... Sharpay is."

"What!?" I asked... evidently at the same time as Sharpay, who, as I noticed had made her way to the front of he auditorium.

"You heard me. I originally wrote the part of Tara for her anyways. Ad we all know she can act way better than her." Kelsi said, pointing to Gabriella.

"Wait... this must be some kind of mistake. I don't even go to this school." Sharpay said.

"And if she doesn't go to his school there's no way she can be in the school production, right?" Gabriella asked, turning to Ms. Darbus.

"Well, actually, I am technically allowed to add any person to the cast as long as they're the appropriate age. And the name Sharpay Evans will surely bring a lot of attention to this musical, since her name was tossed around in the tabloids quite a few times... it'd be like having a celebrity on our cast." Ms. Darbus said, her face brightened as if she could see her own Broadway dreams coming to life in her head. "Why don't you just give it a try dear?"

"Oh no... I don't even plan on staying around that long." Sharpay said, backing away from the stage.

Kelsi looked like she was about to panic. "Um Shar... you do realize that every year the Parker Jamison Academy gives out a scholarship for the best performer in the district."

Sharpay's face softened. "You mean... my old school in New York?"

Kelsi smiled big. "Yes. That's the one."

Sharpay smiled. "I guess I could try." She got on up on the stage. I looked at her like she was crazy, but she just shrugged.

"But... you don't even know the song." Gabriella said... fuming.

"Kelsi e-mailed me the sheet music last summer. I can sing this in my sleep." Sharpay said nonchalantly, apparently unaware that Gabriella looked like she was about to go all ax-murderer on us.

"Well then it's settled! Ms. Evans, please take your place on stage. And Ms. Montez, go sit in he audience with everyone else." Ms Darbus said, not even looking up.

Gabriella was speechless. She just huffed an stormed off the stage. "Go ahead Kels... start the music." Sharpay turned to Kelsi. Kelsi nodded and started playing the music. At first, I was speechless again. Then I felt Sharpay's hand against mine. "Start singing." She whispered.

"I never thought, that I'd find, someone like you to hold on to." I sang, cautiously at first.

"And I never thought, you'd find your way to my heart, but now I've got you, to hold on to." Sharpay sang, sounding simply angelic. This wasn't the first time I'd heard her sing, she would always sing when she lived with my dad and I... just not when people were listening.

We went into a harmony, only it was different form the harmony I had with Gabriella, it was like we actually meant it. "And when we're together, I'll never deny, when you hold me close, I know sparks will fly. I won't stop believing, I won't even try, 'cause when we're together, I know sparks will fly..." I stopped singing and looked down at Sharpay. She was obviously confused, I mean, Kelsi was still playing piano and all. But I was just standing there looking down at her... then I was kissing her... and at first she was in shock... then she was kissing me back. And at hat moment, that was all that mattered.

**Awe... the classic Troypay kiss... it had to happen sooner or later so why not sooner? And why not right on front of everyone? I am officially full of happy fuzziness (wow... I didn't know that was an actual word). Okay... I'm back to normal now. Just so ya know, the song in this chapter was written by me in like, five seconds, I was going for the general High School Musical-ish, marshmellow type thing, but I'm not so good at it, so if it sucks don't think of it as a valid example of my writing capability. That's about it, I'll let you enjoy the Troypay fuzziness (I just had to use that word again... it is so word of the week material) now.  
**


	7. Horror Movie Virgin

**Okay... I'm sorry but I have to go on my little anti-Vanessa Hudgens tirade right now. I just read that she said that taking 'those' pictures (you know the ones I'm talking about) are empowering to her and that she would pose in one of those perv magazines if she could... listen, I'm totally for women's rights and all, but seriously I'm not sure that it's quite healthy to feel empowered by the fact that a bunch of forty year old business men are drooling over you, plus guess who reads all of those Vanessa Hudgens interviews stating how fun it is to strip for camera men? SEVEN YEAR OLDS!!! It's like Britney all over again... Okay, now that that's out of my system you can go ahead and read the story... enjoy!**

**Note: Don't ask about the title... you'll figure it out later and nothing seriously inappropriate happens so yeah... **

Sharpay's POV

I couldn't believe what was happening. Troy Bolton was kissing me... and strangely enough, I didn't want it to end. I mean, I'd kissed other guys before, but this was different, it wasn't just tonsil hokey... it was magic. It was kind of weird... like for six years of my life, I'd completely hated the guy. And now it was like I wanted to stay his in his arms forever (as cheesy as it may sound its true). I even managed to tune out Gabriella screaming at Troy. "Troy! What are you doing!? Get off her!"

Then it hit me... I was kissing some other guys girlfriend. Then the magic ended... and I just felt like a total and complete idiot. I pushed Troy off of me (it took every ounce of strength I had, but I managed to do it) and I looked down at the ground. I felt like a complete moron. I looked away... but all I got was an eyeful of Gabriella crying heavily, which made me want to cry. I looked over at Ms. Darbus, turns out she was in just as much sock as the rest of us.

I pushed some hair out of my eyes and looked out into the audience. "Well, though this has been fun, I think I'd better get out of here." I said, getting off of the stage and then running out of the auditorium. It felt like the room was spinning, and the ground was shaking, I felt like there was fog everywhere, clouding my vision, and I could barely breathe. All I knew was that I had to get out of there. I pushed open the door and leaned against the side of the building to regain my composure.

"Sharpay!" I heard voice yell from behind me. I whipped around, but ended up losing my balance. I almost fell backwards but Troy grabbed my hand ad pulled me closer to him. I tried to pull away but I was too dizzy and he was holding too tight. "Look, I know that wasn't exactly supposed to happen at that moment, but-"

"You just don't get it Troy! I'm not the kind of girl who kisses other girls' boyfriends! I hate those kind of girls! It would just be best for both of us if we forgot about this whole thing... I mean, you're the one with the girlfriend! The same one you've had for the past six years!" I said loudly.

"I don't want to be with Gabriella okay? She's just... she isn't what I want." He huffed, finally letting go of my hand.

"See? This is what happens when I hang around guys like you for too long!" I said, I hadn't meant to but it had just slipped out. I rested my forehead in my hands, trying to ignore that I felt like I was about to pass out. "You know what? Just forget it... just forget this whole thing... I'll go back to New York and get scholarship some other way... I've just got to get away from here."

"Wait guys like me? What are you talking about?" He asked, actually sounding concerned.

"Forget that... it isn't important." I said trying to get the subject of my past love life off of the table. "I've got to go now."

Troy (yet again) grabbed my hand. "No! I' not letting you leave until you tell me what's going on!" He said, I'm sure he went on with more stuff like that, but I couldn't hear anything above the buzzing in my ears, the whole world was getting darker and it felt like thee were walls around me closing in, making it harder to breath. And then, there was nothing.

**xXxXx**

I woke up in a strange place... like I recognized it but exactly where it was just wasn't coming to mind. I heard a knock on the door and I sat up. "Come in." I called cautiously, not really knowing who or what to expect. Troy walked in and I immediately sunk back down in the bed. Then it hit me... I was in my old room, at Troy's house. "What am I doing here? Why didn't you wake me up" I got up from the bed and started walking towards the door.

Troy stepped on front of me and blocked the door with his arm. "Look, I know I'm not really the first person that you'd want to see at this moment but you have to at least hear me out." He said, there was something about it, that sad puppy thing. I wanted to be able to just push him away but something was stopping me.

I crossed my arms. "You have five minutes, start talking." I said, trying to sound as in control as possible.

"Okay first of all you're not going anywhere, you have a high fever, you're going to have to stay in bed at least all day." He said, I rolled my eyes at him. "And second of all, look, I know that the kiss really wasn't supposed to happen, but can we at least... I don't know, just stay friends... forget that whole thing?" He asked.

I looked down... the truth was that I didn't want to forget about it. Bu this was probably my best bet if I wanted to get back to New York as soon as possible. I managed a small smile and looked up. "Sure... and I'm sorry for saying all that stuff yesterday... you know about 'guys like you'? I was just being a spaz." I said, taking the risk of bringing that whole thing up again.

"Yeah, what was with that?" Troy asked. This was exactly what I had been afraid of. "Look, I really don't feel like talking about that right now. I had a really unfortunate choice in a boyfriend and things didn't work out so well, that's it." I said, trying to make it sound like I was being over dramatic. Troy nodded, as if he wasn't really accepting the answer but knew to just leave it at that. "So now that we have that all cleared up, can you let me out of the house?" I asked.

Troy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as if he was a club bouncer. "No way... I wasn't kidding about the whole fever thing. And since you've seem to forgotten you sort of passed out on front of the school earlier. And that may just become a problem sooner or later." He said sarcastically.

I blushed slightly. "I may have just over looked that fact a bit." I crossed my arms, going into lawyer mode. "Can't you just let me stay at the Marriot? I mean, it's only like, two miles away. Plus I'm pretty sure I'm much safer at the Marriot, what, with your psycho girlfriend being just about ready to kill me. If she finds out that I'm staying here I'm going to have a horror movie worthy death."

Troy smiled as if he had seen that coming. "I've taken that into consideration, and I've decided that if she wants to stay my girlfriend, she's going to have to back off a little bit. She has to know that if we're going to work out, I should be allowed to hang out with my stepsister."

"I'm guessing by the fact that you're still able to walk that you didn't tell her about your little revolution yet, did you?" I asked with a laugh. Troy just looked down like he was embarrassed, causing me to let out another small laugh. "But still, it looks like someone grew a backbone over night. I've never been more proud." I said, putting my hand over my heart in an extremely dramatic gesture.

Troy looked up and smiled as if those few words that I had said were like an instant pep talk. "Well I have been told I'm a fast learner." He said, going along with the whole sarcasm thing.

"So there is no chance that I'm going to get you let me go back to the hotel?" I asked.

"Nope, not a chance." Troy said with a wide grin. "So do you want to hang out tonight? You know, watch a few movies or something? I'll spring for take out." He gave me one of those 'you know you want to' looks.

I looked at him skeptically. "Depends... what movies?" I asked.

Troy smiled sheepishly. "I think I still have those Buffy DVD's somewhere in my room. I know where the house keeper hides the ice cream."

I giggled. "Fine, you have any other flavors besides _vanilla_."

"Ah... I've almost forgotten about your little ice cream references." He said with a small laugh. "I was vanilla, wasn't I?"

I laughed. "Well, if you play your cards right you may just work your way up to strawberry."

"Great, the best I can ever be is the flavor that nobody likes." Troy laughed.

I rolled my eyes and put my hands on my hips. "Fine... if you're lucky, I'll let you be cookie dough or something. But don't get your hopes up." I warned him.

"How come you get to be mint chocolate chip and all I get to be is cookie dough?" Troy asked, pretending to throw a tantrum. "How about Triple fudge, everybody likes fudge!"

I rolled my eyes. "Sushi, Chinese, or Mexican?" I asked plainly.

"Sushi's good." He said with a sheepish smile. "Wait, they have fortune cookies at sushi places, don't they?"

I laughed. "No, sushi is from Japan, not China." I said as slowly as possible. "And can you stop acting like such a five year old?"

"I can't and you can't make me." Troy said in a kiddish voice, running out of the doorway.

"Just find the Buffy DVD's and I'll meet you in your room with the ice cream." I yelled after him and rolled my eyes.

**xXxXx**

Troy's POV

I laughed as Sharpay got up to switch discs. "I can't believe that I've actually been sitting at home watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer all day." I said, leaned back in the couch. "I can't even begin to explain how lame I feel at this moment."

"It takes a real man to admit that they're a Buffy addict." Sharpay laughed as she opened the "Oh my god... that was the last one." Sharpay said, turning around. "We went through four Buffy DVD's"

"I think that must be a new record." I said with another laugh. "So pick another movie, they're on the top shelf." I called.

"Sure." Sharpay said, standing on her tip toes and reaching up to the top shelf, I couldn't help but notice that a good chunk of her lower back was exposed from her tank top. I let my eyes look at her tan skin... I started wondering what it be like to hold her... well, you know, with out her pushing me off of her and all. "Oh my god, since when do you guys have all three Grudge movies?" Sharpay asked, turning around with a few DVD cases in her hands. "What are you looking at?" She asked, looking up at me. "Whatever, are you up for some horror filled fun?" Sharpay asked holding up the DVD.

"Um... sure, why not, how bad could it be?" I asked. "I didn't even know we had those... they must be Claire's or something." I shrugged, referring to the last gold digger my dad had picked up. "They aren't mine, that's for sure, I wasn't allowed to watch horror movies. My dad's family value obsessed friends frowned upon that type of thing."

"You man you're a horror movie virgin?" Sharpay asked, raising her eyebrows. "It's official... I got here just in time to corrupt you. And by the way, if you're going to start watching horror movies, The Grudge is a pretty good place to start. Actually, I would recommend The Village, but since we're working with limited resources The Grudge will just have to do." She said in about two seconds.

"If you say so." I said with a shrug. "Wait... it's not _that_ bad is it?" I asked, sitting up straight.

"Well... it's not that bad on my standards, but for a horror movie virgin it may be sort of intense." She said, turning back around to put the first disc in the player.

"Do you have to use the term 'horror movie virgin'?" I asked, stuffing a handful of popcorn into my mouth.

"Well it is the official term." She said, turning around with a smile. "And by the way, there is nothing wrong with being a virgin you know, you don't have to be embarrassed about it." She said sarcastically... okay, now she was just mocking me.

"Yeah, can we please stop saying virgin now? Or at least put the horror movie part back on front of it or something?" I asked. "I'm warning you."

Sharpay sat next to me on the couch. "You know Troy, some people are very proud to be virgins... I'm not exactly one of those people... but still. You should really be more comfortable haring that word. I mean... virgin, virgin, virgin. What are you going to do about it?"

"You are so going to pay for that." I said, leaning over and tickling her mercilessly.

"Okay... you're going to tickle me into submission? Did I miss something? Did we somehow get transported back to the third grade?" But that changed when Sharpay started laughing. " Okay, now I'm serious... stop that." She said between laughs.

"Not until you apologize and stop saying virgin." I said, reaching over and tickling her more.

"I am not apologizing for saying the word virgin! Virgin! Virgin! Virgin! Virgin! Virgin!" she said loudly, tough the words were barely audible between her laughs. I kept on tickling her, and then she started laughing harder. "Still... not... apologizing!"

"What's that? Did you just say you were apologizing? Well in that case I'd better tickle it out of you." I said... okay, so she was right about the whole third grade thing, but whatever.

"TROY!? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?!?!?!?!?" Okay... do I even have to tell you who said that? You guessed it... Gabriella.

**This is just too typical, you know? You know, the part where the girlfriend catches her boyfriend having innocent fun with another girl and starts freaking out that he's having friendly fun with another girl and accuses him of cheating on her even though she is secretly sad that she can't connect with him on that level... okay, I may have read too much into that one but whatever. The 'horror movie virgin' thing is based on a true story, from the day I learned that guys really don't like being called virgins by girls... so much that they start going in detail about exactly where they have been with certain girls... and take my word for it that you really don't want to know what your guy friend did by your locker during free period with the school's resident good girl... it's traumatizing. Okay... so by now.  
**


	8. Where is the Love?

**So I have this really big test to study for so I don't exactly have time to rant now... So all I'm going to say is that I'm warning you right now that I am about to pull you into the dark and confusing world of Gabriella's thoughts... so be warned. Okay... I will now attempt to get into Gabriella's head (cue the dramatic music). Watch and be amazed... **

Gabriella's POV

I walked over to Troy's house. I couldn't believe what was happening, I mean, first he kisses some other girl everyone, then he leaves with her. I mean, did he even think about how humiliating that must've been for me? I mean, every time I tried to give him so much as a hug in public he'd practically push me off of him. And then he goes out and kisses his stepsister? Isn't that like, incest or something anyways?

The point is that he didn't know what he was doing, and I had to steer him straight from the path that he was about to take... the way I saw it, I was doing him a favor, I mean, that girl was toxic, pure toxic... not only was she just here to get some money and split, but she was putting all of these ideas in Troy's head. I don't mean to sound all Hitler-ish, but seriously we were who people wanted to be, not who wanted to be like other people, especially not some unappreciative, orphaned juvenile delinquent like Sharpay.

So anyways, I was at Troy's house and I knocked on the door... no answer, I let that go, I rang the door bell... I let that go, so I called the house, he didn't even pick up the damn phone! I resorted to sanding on top of the decorative flower pot on the door step and picked up the spare key that they always kept over the door frame and stepped down, getting twigs stuck in my hair, getting practically drenched in rain water that had just been in the gutter that I grabbed on to in order to keep my balance, and breaking four acrylic nails in doing so. I finally got the damn key, opened the door and stepped inside, looking like total crap.

I stormed through the mansion, ignoring the strange looks from the house keeper I kept going. You can just imagine how pissed I was when I heard a female voice laughing from Troy's room. I ran upstairs and looked through the small opened part of the door. I watched as Sharpay got up to change the DVD, he was laughing and talking to her. It was so weird, watching Troy with another girl, I mean, they were actually having a normal conversation, Troy never talked like that to me, the closest thing that we'd ever had to conversation was flirting and the occasional moments of puppy love and even that seemed strained for Troy, I never really noticed it until then, but our relationship was really mostly public and, well... physical. I felt tears welling up in my eyes. It was like I was just seeing a whole new side to Troy, one that was laughing at jokes, and constantly smiling, and sadly enough, I had to watch someone else with him with someone else to see it.

Then all of a sudden, Troy started tickling her, and she started laughing hysterically, then he started laughing too, and I couldn't take it any more. I took a moment to put my facial expression back together and walked into the room.

"Troy! What the hell are you doing!?"

xXxXx

Troy's POV

I got up and walked over to her, preparing to possible have to suffer trauma to the head. "Look, Gabriella, I know how this looks, but... what happened to you?" I asked, looking down at her, she looked like she had just survived a tornado.

"Just shut up Troy." She sad... her voice shaking, I just noticed that she looked like she was about to cry, which was strange because she usually seemed so... heartless, like she was always so defensive that it was like nothing ever got to her... now she seemed more, I don't know... human.

"A-are you okay?" I asked.

Gabriella closed her eye and nodded, then smiled up at Sharpay. "Hey Sharpay, what were you guys talking about?" She asked, sounding a little bit defensive. I guess that her little moment of humanity wasn't meant to last that long. "I could here you guys laughing all the way from the front door." Which brought me to the question how did she get inside anyways, though I didn't dare ask.

"Nothing, really. Just that Troy's a virgin." She said with a smirk, I was sort of surprised at how well she was taking Gabriella's spaz attacks pretty well.

I turned back to Gabriella. "She means a horror movie virgin." I explained.

"Well, I knew for sure that she didn't mean that you were an actual virgin... for well... obvious reasons." She said with a sinister smile. "If you know what I mean."

Sharpay looked like she was about to burst out in laughter, but she managed to (just barely) stifle it. "You know what? I could go without a mental image." She let out a small laugh. "So, maybe I should go, I'll be at Kelsi's place. Oh, and by the way Troy, after you're done borrowing my Panic! At the Disco CD, just leave it on the desk in my room. Ciao!" She said, getting off of the couch and walking out of the room.

Gabriella crossed her arms and looked at me with this crazy look on her face. "What were you just doing with her of all people!? Did you even think about how I might have felt about you practically lying on top of her- wait... did she just tell you to leave her goth CD in her room? What did she mean by that?" Gabriella asked.

I had mentally prepared myself for this moment... so I just took a deep breath and started talking. "Okay... first of all, I really don't appreciate you calling it a goth CD, and by the way, I'd been meaning to check it out for the past few months, she just offered to loan me her copy. And second of all, she had a fever so I told her that she could stay here until she got better."

Gabriella looked like she had just been slapped across the face. "What?" Was all she said. I'd expected a big reaction... but not this kind, she looked like she was seriously about to burst out into tears.

"I really don't see what's wrong with my stepsister visiting me after my dad died." I said... neglecting to mention that my stepsister sort of hated my dad. I was standing firm in my answer until I saw her face. "Wait... Gabriella, are you okay? You look like you're about to cry." I asked, looking at her with a worried expression.

"I'm fine... really." She said, waving it off. "I only want to know right now... do you have any real feelings for her?"

"Who? You mean Sharpay? Please Gabriella... she's lived in my house for two years and I'd never even thought of her that way... and what happened yesterday didn't mean anything to either of us. Trust me, you don't have anything to worry about." I said, even though I'd multiple times in that statement, the most important thing at that moment was to calm her down. And was it really that necessary to explain to my her about how I had one of those stupid middle school crushes on Sharpay in the seventh grade?

"Really?" Gabriella asked, a small smile emerging out of her, making me feel slightly guilty about that whole stupid middle school crush thing.

"Let's just forget about this for now." I said, trying not to seem to suspicious. "How about we head out? We can go to a movie or something." I shrugged.

"No actually I was thinking that we could go to that upscale French restaurant that's right down the street from my yoga class." Gabriella said, her eyes lighting up.

I groaned. "I don't want to go to Crème de la whatever again... we go there like, once a month." I complained... then the guilt hit me again. "So I guess it wouldn't really matter if we went there one more time." I said, trying to hide the reluctance in my voice.

Gabriella smiled and put her arms around my neck. "Thank you Troy... you don't know how much it means to know that you care about me." She said, giving me a small kiss on the lips and pulling me into a hug. "Because I really, really love you."

Oh God... here comes the guilt again...

**xXxXx**

Sharpay's POV

I went back to Troy's house the day after the whole run in with Gabriella went down... simply for the purpose of getting my stuff out of my old room so I could move into Kelsi's place for awhile. And maybe just to make sure that I wouldn't have to worry about having to flee Albuquerque in fear of Gabriella being out to murder me.

I rang the door bell and waited for a few moments until Troy opened the door for me. "Sharpay" He asked, a confused expression on his face.

My cheeks turned red... I started feeling slightly embarrassed for coming all the way here to pump him for information. "Yeah, um... I just came by to get some stuff so I can stay with Kelsi and-"

"You came down here to ask about what happened yesterday... didn't you?" He asked with an attempted smirk that looked more like a smile.

"You got a problem with that?" I asked, a smile forming on my face also. "Because by the looks of it, you really need someone to spill to."

"Sadly, this is true, some on, I'll have Theresa make us coffee." He said, opening the door wider and letting me inside the mansion.

I walked inside and turned to face Troy. "So what exactly happened after I left?" I asked, trying to sound at least lightly subtle.

"Well, I explained the situation and she was a little unhappy about it but then I told her that you and I are just friends and she accepted it." Troy said with a shrug.

"Oh come on, there must have been something else... did she try to set the house on fire, or steal your car and attempt to drive to Las Vegas to start a new life, or go across the street to the creepy European guy who was in the army for thirty years and played Russian roulette with him and his old war buddies." I suggested with a laugh.

"What the hell is Russian roulette?" Troy asked, also laughing.

"It's kind of like gambling... only with guns, you have to load it some weird way and pass it around, each person points he gun to their head and hopes that it doesn't go off. It kills one person in the game per round." I explained. Troy gave me a worried look. "Don't ask... this band sang about it in this song that I like... okay?"

"Oh... okay then." Troy said, still sounding a little bit freaked. "But anyways, nothing like that happened. But she did kind of tell me that she loves me..." Troy said, as if it wasn't as monumental as it really was.

"And?" I asked.

"And... what?" Troy looked at me as if I was the insane one.

"Hello... didn't you say it back?" Silence. "Oh my god."

"Why? Was I supposed to?" He asked, obviously getting nervous.

"What planet have you been living o for the past eighteen years? No girl says I love you to a guy without expecting to hear it back, and no girl says I love you to a guy without thinking about it for a long time. Haven't you ever had a girlfriend besides Gabriella?" Silence again. "Oh my god."

"Can you please stop saying oh my god like I have some kind of life threatening medical condition?" Troy asked.

I took a deep breath. "Fine... can you at least explain to me why you didn't say it back?" I asked. "I mean, there must be some reason why you wouldn't tell your girlfriend of four years that you love her after she says it to you."

Troy shrugged as if it wasn't as complicated as I was making it out to be. "Because I don't."


	9. Pay Got Branded

Okay you guys, so sorry I haven't been able to update in a while, I've been facing some drama at school which I'm sure you guys can understand. Plus my teachers are going all crazy and assigning big projects all at the same time... so whatever. Enjoy the chapter...

Troy's POV

It was Sunday morning... had my dad been alive I would have been at church with him and Gabriella (none of us were really all that religious, but it was a part of my dad's image according to Al). I didn't want to wake up at all. Basically, Sharpay thought I was an ass for not saying I love you back and that was pretty much enough to keep me hiding under my covers for the rest of my life (no matter how feminine that sounds).

I finally got up solely for the purpose of getting food because it was like, noon and I hadn't eaten anything. It was actually kind of sad, like his was the type of thing was only supposed to be done by moody teenage girls. Only when I got down stairs... there was Sharpay, eating pancakes. "What are you doing here?" I asked, kind of embarrassed, it was pretty obvious that she knew that I was asleep for so long.

"Hmmm." She said, before swallowing a he bite of pancake. "I almost forgot how good Theresa's pancakes were... they're like little clouds of pure happiness... with chocolate chips." I couldn't help but smile at that. Sharpay stuffed another huge bite of pancake in her mouth. "Nice hair." She nodded to me, I just realized that my head looked like a troll doll.

"Thanks." I said, managing a small laugh. I ran my hand through my hair in a futile attempt to smooth down my troll doll hair. "So why are you here?"

Sharpay swallowed her pancakes and shrugged. "I came to say sorry for flipping out on you yesterday about the whole Gabriella thing. I was just angry about something that happened many boarding schools ago." She said, drifting of for a moment then shaking it off. "Plus I'm here to tell you that there's going to be a clam bake tonight down at the beach tonight that some of my prep school friends throwing, you should bring Gabriella."

"A clam bake? That's a party right?" I asked. Sharpay nodded as she chewed more of her pancakes. "Nah... I think I'll just have to miss out on a bunch of kids in polo shirts eating rich people food discussing politics." I said sarcastically.

"No really, they have normal parties too... only they can get a whole lot wilder than the ones at East High can." Sharpay said. "Because when your dad is a big political figure, you can get away with way more stuff than you could if your dad was just a normal person." I had to agree with that, it was the sad but it was a fact of life.

"I'll see what I can do." I said with a smile. "Theresa, can you give us a moment?" I asked.

Theresa nodded and left the room. "So we never actually got to watch the Grudge, wan to go and finish it... only minus the tickling this time." Sharpay suggested. "We can make the extra butter popcorn." She said.

"No, actually I was thinking that we could just talk..." I started, taking a deep breath before finishing the statement. "...about Gabriella."

Sharpay started laughing. "Why does this sound like I'm about to hear that there's a psycho chainsaw murderer out to get me?" I gave her a 'not helping' look. Sharpay brushed some hair out of her face and smiled. "Okay... I'm listening."

"Well... I don't think Gabriella and I feel the same way about each other anymore... and I really don't want to hurt her." _Or have her attack me with a chainsaw in my sleep _I said to myself. "How do I get her to cool it?" I asked.

Sharpay swallowed her hunk of pancakes. "Hmmm... Oh! I knew a girl like Gabriella once at this school at Portland... when her boyfriend asked for some space all she did for like, three months was stuff her face with Little Debbie snack cakes and listen to Hey There Delilah over and over and over and over and over and over-"

"I get the point and by the way... you're not really helping the situation." I said, letting out a strained laugh at the mental image of Gabriella on a couch scarfing down snack cakes.

"Hey! The good news was that the girl's dad was this totally amazing plastic surgeon so she was able to look some what normal after that... and she eventually switched from Hey There Delilah to an assortment of Kelly Clarkson break up songs. So it's sort of a happy ending." Sharpay said while getting up to put her plate in the sink.

"You totally made that last part up just now, didn't you?" I asked.

"Well... sort of." Sharpay said, sitting back down at the table. "Come to think of it, after three months of watching her repeatedly listen to Hey There Delilah and inhale snack cakes, I got expelled for organizing screw the dress code day. But the point is, for all we know, she could be sitting in her room listening to Hey There Delilah aright this moment."

"I liked the other version better." I admitted. "Wait... did you just say screw the dress code day?"

Sharpay smiled. "Yeah, we all broke out our halter tops and micro minis, the guys all wore their pervert shirts. Every student in the entire school participated... I was so proud of myself." Sharpay looked proud... like every school that she got expelled from was some great accomplishment... and I guess it sort of was, in a very twisted way. "So yes or no to the clam bake? There'll be swimming, surfing, great food, music that hasn't been released yet, and immunity to the law... you can bring Chad and Taylor too if you want, just so you don't feel alone in your own suburban public school lameness."

"Thanks for that word of kindness... sure, I'll call them and ask... maybe Gabriella will see it as a peace offering." I said with a shrug.

"Okay... well I've got to go, Kelsi and I are going bikini shopping." She said, taking her last sip of orange juice.

"Bikinis?" I asked, getting sort of uncomfortable. Something about the idea of Sharpay in a bikini on front of all those gross prep school guys was just some what unsettling. But I guess that was normal... I mean I was technically her older step brother... well, it was only like a two month difference but whatever.

"Yeah... didn't I say there would be surfing and swimming? My last school was in New York, and because of the weather there weren't too many water related events." She grabbed her bag off the table. "Well, I've seriously got to go now... I was supposed to meet Kelsi down at The Style Emporium like, fifteen minutes ago. I was meaning to get this totally flawless Janelle Jameson swimsuit that is totally one of a kind... so I've got to go buy it before someone else does. Ciao!" She said... not even turning around to say bye (in a foreign language, I might add) as she headed for the door.

"Bye." I said quietly... not that she even noticed.

xXxXx

I waited outside my house with Gabriella, Taylor and Chad for Sharpay. Gabriella was unusually happy, and yes... she had forgiven me for not saying I love you back. The weird thing was that she was the one who came to me and apologized for being 'such a needy spaz' (her words, not mine) and promised that it wouldn't happen again. I mean, the apology was all considerate and all, but really, it felt like she was apologizing to her boss for messing up something at work. And dating shouldn't feel like work, should it? Anyways, Gabriella was doing fine, in fact, she was excited. "So do you think anyone famous will be there? I mean last year's winter party that the Hawthorne Prep kids threw, Beyonce came by and they gave out copies Hilary Duff's unreleased albums out as party favors. I mean, maybe Sharpay isn't that bad in the first place."

"I always like Sharpay... I mean she was on the academic decathlon team for like, two weeks before she got transferred to Hawthorne Prep. She really is smart... it's just that the whole organized school competition thing really isn't her thing." Taylor said.

"I still think she's a bitch." Chad said, crossing his arms.

Sharpay (finally) pulled up in our driveway... in a limo. She stepped out with Kelsi beside her. "Sorry I'm late... The Style Emporium had a last minute sale on sunglasses that I just couldn't resist."

"I would usually be pretty pissed, but those glasses are just so damn cute. And I really don't mind the limo." Taylor said, getting in.

"Um... you remember Chad and Taylor right?" I asked.

"Yeah, oh, really nice shoes Taylor, and Chad... weren't you the guy who called me, quote on quote, 'a psychopathic, wrist slitting, self conceited, orphaned bitch'? Sorry I had to beat you up for that by the way." Sharpay said, intentionally trying to get Chad in trouble with Taylor.

Chad blushed... I'm serious, he actually blushed. "You must have me confused with someone else." He said, doing his best to ignore the 'how could you be so cruel an insensitive' look that Taylor was giving him.

"Really? I could swear it was you... you know, you wore your hair in those weird braid things. And you used to make out with your pencils." Sharpay said.

Chad went back to blushing... Taylor was sort of pointing and laughing so that really didn't help. "I wasn't making out with my pencil... I was chewing on the eraser."

"I distinctly remember hearing moaning." Sharpay said, and that managed a short laugh from me.

"Whatever... can we just go now?" Chad asked.

"Paul... to the beach." Sharpay said, the chauffer nodded and started driving.

"So did you get a chance to listen to the Panic! At the Disco CD?" Sharpay asked.

I turned and looked at her, she was wearing a denim and a pink tube top, exposing two bikini straps, I tried not to stare too long... I mean, it would be kind of weird if I got caught checking out my step sister and my best friends and m girlfriend "Yeah... I actually loved Time to Dance."

"Did you like Build God Then We'll Talk? It's one of my personal favorites" Sharpay asked.

"Yeah... my dad would have totally murdered me if he caught me listening to it too... he'd go and start one of his 'listening to songs on this certain matter is very controversial speeches. I love it anyways though." I said.

Gabriella must have felt sort of left out because she started talking. "I didn't think that the song was controversial at all... I mean, we should all be exposed to it some time or another, if we aren't, we'll never grow as individuals." She said... probably trying to think of an intelligent sounding addition to our conversation.

Sharpay muffled a laugh. "That's interesting... because the song is about a prostitute."

Gabriella blushed and sunk down into her seat and crossed her arms, obviously embarrassed. "I mean... we should all be informed about the issue. We shouldn't live in denial about things like that happening in the world."

"Nice cover." Taylor said, gaining herself a death glare from Gabriella. She didn't really seem to care though. Thus, making Gabriella seem even madder. "So Sharpay... is it true that you're going to be in the musical with Troy?" Taylor asked... gaining her another glare.

"Oh... probably not. It was just a crazy scheme to get me back to New York... it was never going to work out anyways, I probably didn't eve make call backs." Sharpay said, probably because she just didn't want to piss Gabriella off.

"No, actually word on the street is that Darbus is seriously trying to decide between you and Gabriella, so you may have a chance after all." Kelsi said.

Gabriela seemed to get angry... but the he face cooled down and she put on a fake smile. "Oh please... I mean, you're good and all but honestly, I've been the star of all of these musicals before you were even adopted by Troy's dad. And besides Troy and I have chemistry. And there is no way that Darbus would not see that. And your, well, just his stepsister."

"Yeah... you could really see that by that kiss they shared on stage, now couldn't you?" Taylor asked, crossing her arms.

"What the hell is your problem?" Gabriella asked.

"I have no problem. I'm just stating the facts." Taylor said.

There was a short awkward silence, then Sharpay smiled. "We're here, okay, just stay cool and don't make a big deal out of everything, and what ever you do, never mention anything about plastic surgery. That's a pretty sensitive subject around here."

Sharpay opened the door and left the limo and we all followed behind her. Immediately, we were greeted by a girl with read hair (not carrot top red... like, deep, crimson red) wearing black tankini top and pair of jean Capri pants. She ran p to Sharpay and gave her a hug. "Oh my god! It's Evans! And you're not wearing chucks and strait jeans!"

"Oh my god DJ! I can't believe it's you! You remember Kelsi right? Oh, and this is my step bother and his friends. Guys this is Daniela Jeannette Alexander, aka DJ." Sharpay said, all in one breath.

DJ tuned around as if she'd just realized that Sharpay had bought people "Oh, hey! You guys are totally late we're already like, half way through the secret circle."

"The secret circle? What is this? The Babysitter's Club?" Chad asked.

DJ laughed. "It's this ritual we have, before the party starts we each have to solidify our place at the party by sharing a secret that no one else knows."

"It's sort of mandatory, but it's no big deal, what happens at the party stay at the party." Sharpay said with a shrug. At first I was sort of nervous about it, but then I saw all of the government official's kids spilling about what they found in the locked cabinet. I went ahead and told them about how I have an unhealthy obsession with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which everyone laughed at, Gabriela told about the time she stole from the Gap and we all told our extremely boring stories. The t was Sharpay's turn.

"Okay Pay. What exactly have we missed? And make it good." DJ asked.

"I could tell you but I think it'd be better if I showed you." Sharpay said, then before I knew I, she was taking off her shirt, so all she was wearing were shorts and a bikini top.

"This secret involves you taking off your shirt? I think I like this." Said some guy in the circle.

"Shut up Nick." Sharpay said, then pushed her hair over one side of her shoulder. And to my shock, disgust, and surprise, on the back of her left shoulder, was the name Brendan.

"Brandon!? Whoa! Pay got branded!" Someone yelled.

"Okay... so I know I said I would never violate my body with some guy's name, but I was so drunk and he got a 'Sharpay' tattoo. It would actually be kind of cute... if his girlfriend for six years didn't see his tattoo, tell his parents- who were practically planning those two's wedding, even though we were only like, seventeen- they arranged for him and his ex girlfriend to both go to the same boarding school in Toronto and shelled out an extra few ten thousands to make sure that they wouldn't let me in." Sharpay said, her voice cracking a little bit, but even with that, she was keeping amazing composure through all of this, I guess they really were her best friends after all, so she wasn't really afraid to spill her guts to them. "I figured that it would be kind of hypocritical if I got it removed... you know? Like I would be trying to forget how much I loved him."

"How come I didn't know about this?" Kelsi asked, sounding kind of offended.

"Because I was to busy going all insane over it. I mean, I went guy hopping, which was incredibly fun for a while. Then I started street racing, which I've got to say is an incredible stress reliever but you get in huge trouble if one of the racers starts crashing into stuff... important stuff, like our current principal's house. Hence, the end of my boarding school career in Flagstaff Arizona." Sharpay said, now smiling (it was a pretty weak smile, but still...) at her great accomplishment.

Taylor let out a laugh. "Okay, though that so totally tragic and romantic I must say, that is a pretty kick ass way to get expelled."

"I have to agree. I mean, it's been like a year, and we've been totally out of contact with each other, since then and I'm kind of trying to block out the whole experience... but I'm sure I'll eventually be able to laugh at it." Sharpay said. I couldn't help but stare at her. I mean, she didn't seem the type to have her heart broken by some guy named Brandon. She was always so carefree, though she did always get pretty defensive when it came to the subject of relationships. "So can we do something else now? All these people sitting in a circle staring at me makes me feel like I'm in therapy." And with that, everyone got up from the circle, turned on the music, and started partying like nothing had just happened.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Okay... so you know my story, As She Falls to the Ground? The abuse one? Okay, so I realized that I really went into it with no plan for a full story. When it started I had intended for it to be just a three shot, and now I'm pretty much stuck. I had a few ideas on the direction it could go, but none of them seemed realistic or fitting enough, which sucks because it has a lot of potential. Dropping it is just an idea, but I may end up doing it. So if you have any ideas on what you think may work for it, or if you're interested in picking the story up just PM me (and if you're interested it picking up the story, please help me figure out how exactly to pass a story on to a different author...). I'll be posting a message like this on the story itself so you can just check that too. Thanks for being patient with me.


	10. Secrets

**I am soooooo sorry that I haven't updated in forever, I was suffering a horrible writer's block and needed to take a break... and yes, I realize that said 'break' was two months, but I was out of the country for one of those two months... and the rest of the time, I sent writing and rewriting. So anyways, I just realized the I never made a disclaimer for this so if you haven't figured this out by now, I own basically nothing but the plot and a few characters... that's about it. **

**Enjoy the story (and watch out for major drama)...**

Sharpay's POV

I was finally getting over the whole 'circle of secrets' thing and starting to enjoy the party, I had even been dancing for a while, but unfortunately, when I had taken a two minute break for some water, I was attacked by two sophomores who could pass off as eighth graders... seriously, they were like, a foot shorter than me. "Hi Sharpay! I'm Gretchen and this is Katrina" Said one of the girls (in an incredibly high and squeaky voice, might I add).

"We're new at Hawthorne, and we must say, you're a legend here." Katrina said quickly, before jumping into interrogation mode. "Is it true that you were offered your own reality show on VH1... but you turned it down?"

"Is it true that you once let Paris Hilton borrow your eye liner at a movie premiere?"

"Were you really the one who told Lindsay to go blond?"

"Were you really in a Justin Timberlake video?

"Did you really make Lauren from the Hills cry because you called her a bad actress with no individuality what so ever?"

"Can we get a picture of the tattoo... you know, for the blogs?"

"Oh! And it would really help if you had any recent pictures of that Brandon guy that you told us all about?"

"Preferably with in one else in he shot... except maybe you."

"And if at all possible, he has to be topless if we really want people to start checking our blog daily."

"Unless you have a problem with the entire world looking at your ex boyfriend shirtless... which is totally understandable."

"Is he hott?"

"Where did you meet him?"

"Was his girlfriend a total whore?"

"Why was he even dating her?"

"Did she ever, like, see you with him?"

"Did you ever get into a fight with her?"

"Did you and Brandon ever... you know... do it?"

"Could you imagine like, getting married to him?"

"Do you still love him?"

I was fucking speechless. I mean, who asks you if you're still in love with your ex? It seriously took all the self control in me not to strangle their tiny little necks. "Okay... first of all, yes, I was offered a show on VH1 but in my opinion reality shows cheapen real life. I let Paris borrow mascara, not eye liner, I mean seriously, eye liner would mean that I would keep something that had touched her skin. For the record, I have never met Lindsay Lohan, I have no clue how that rumor got started. I was once an extra in a Justin Timberlake video, I have no clue why people make such a big deal out of it though. I told Lauren that her bra strap was showing and that she might have wanted to pull her pants up, and she some how took it as me calling her a fat whore and it escalated from there, though now that you mention it, she is a bad actress with no individuality what so ever. I am not giving you guys a picture of the tattoo or one of Brandon, and no further comment on all of the other questions, and please don't try asking again or I'll have to tell the others that there are a few press snitches at the party, and you know how much they hate that kind of thing, right?"

Silence. Not just that, but they looked at me with these 'how dare she!? Does she know who my father is?' looks on their faces. I mean, had they just expected me to sit there and answer all of those questions? "You're not... serious are you?" Either Katrina or Gretchen asked.

"Completely serious." I said, plastering my fakest smile across my face. "Now I'm going to go get a drink and hope that you guys don't follow me." I said walking over to the table, glad to get away from them, I smirked, I had such a way with the paparazzi.

Taylor was standing there, enjoying a drink that didn't quite look like mountain dew... it didn't quite look like her first one either. "Hey Sharpay!" She said.

"Hey... where's Gabriella?" I asked, grabbing a coke.

"How should I know? Probably out there slutting around with random guys." Taylor said bitterly.

Coke almost spewed out of my nose at the one. "I'm sorry... what?" I asked, between choking on my coke.

"You heard me." Taylor said with a smirk. "I can't believe I was ever friends with her in the first place."

"What brought this on?" I asked, genuinely curious about this, I mean, Taylor had always happily been Gabriella's sidekick, and now she was going all rebelious? It just didn't add up.

Taylor seemed amused by this. "Well you see, that's the big question. In a twisted way, we're both on the same boat here. We were both screwed over by that bitch Gabriella."

Okay... now I was hooked on this conversation. "How do you figure?" I asked.

"Oh please! Don't pretend like you don't see it! Gabriella is the only reason that Troy hasn't made a move... or well, another move." Taylor said with a smile, obviously made happy with the idea of someone pulling Troy right from under her.

I raised an eyebrow... honestly, she had lost me on that one. "I don't follow."

"Seriously Sharpay, you don't have to lie t me about this! I for one think you and Troy would make a great couple, I mean, even Chad sees it-" She scowled at the mention of his name. "Though I'm not exactly on speaking basis with him right now... he agrees. Ever since you got here, it's like he woke up from a trance or something."

"No, Taylor, seriously. You have the whole thing mixed up." I said, in a sad attempt to get Taylor to let go of the idea. She just shook her head at me and smiled at me. I decided the only way out of this was to switch subjects. "That still doesn't explain the ever so sudden change of heart towards Chad and Gabriella though. I mean, I know I'm not their biggest fans or anything, but you guys were like, inseparable."

Taylor scowled. "You wouldn't think that if you saw what I did."

"I have no clue what you're talking about Tay-" I paused, letting her words register. "Wait... they didn't..." I trailed off.

"Bingo." Taylor nodded. "Yesterday I was planning to meet Gabriella to talk about the Academic Decathlon, had to cancel a date with Chad and he was pretty pissed." She paused before she got too angry. "I waited at the Library for two hours, I figured that she forgot to tell me that she was busy so I went over to Chad's. Imagine my surprise when I saw my boyfriend messing around with my best friend in the fucking swimming pool."

"No way."

"It happened." She said, her look turning icier. "And I felt like such a total idiot. I mean, what did I expect? Dating since the sixth grade and no sex? I mean seriously, how could I be so naïve? I just didn't realize that I had t choose between being a virgin and being his girlfriend... I mean, what was I supposed to do? Say sorry I wanted to wait until marriage?"

I felt like a slut for about half a second, then it passed. Then I started feeling sympathy. "Wow." Was all I could manage.

"Wow is right."

"Did she know that you saw?" I asked.

"Nope."

"Are you going to tell her?"

She paused. "No." She said. She paused again. "As for Troy... I was thinking that maybe you should be the one to break it to him."

I dropped my cup in the sand at that one. "Okay... maybe you should take a break from the tequila Tay, because that is not going to happen."

"Just think about it okay?" She asked, and before I could answer, she walked off.

Troy's POV

I leaned against the speaker at the party, just watching the other people. The people here were so interesting, it was really kind of weird for me. I mean, the people at East High were generally forgettable. The people here looked as if they were pulled straight out of an MTV show. Gabriella had been babbling about how they played some demo song by Justin Timberlake when his next album isn't even in talks. I was like 'right... that guy from that boy band... whatever.' But Gabriella seemed pretty into it. She had eventually wandered off trying to make friends with a few of the prep school kids. I really didn't care much, because at least she wasn't going around confessing her love for me. I couldn't help but feeling out of it. I mean, I would have been one of them had I not insisted on going to Montessori with all the other kids when I was five.

"Hey! Are you enjoying the party?" I heard Sharpay ask.

I turned around and smiled. "Hey Shar, where were you?"

"Just catching up with some people." She said. "Hey... can I show you something?" She asked.

I shrugged, when in reality, I was relieved, I had already been receiving weird looks for just standing by the speakers.

Sharpay smiled. "Come on." She said, and took off walking. I followed as closely as I could.

"Um... Shar... I can't even hear the music anymore. Where are we?" I asked.

"Chill, I know where we're going. And we're here." She said.

"And what exactly is here?" I asked, all I saw was an abandoned rental shed.

"Ye of little faith, have you learned nothing in the time that I was here?" She asked. She walked towards the shed and dug in her pocket until she found a key, which she used to unlock the shed. "Remember back when I lived here, I would never be around the house?"

"Yeah... you spent all that time in your room with the door locked."

"Not quite, I had a window, therefore I had an option." She said. "Come on, welcome a little place I like to call home."

I stepped closer. Even though the walls were paneled with wood, the place was pretty cool, Sharpay had a little table with a stack of books and a boom box with an even bigger stack of CD's next to it. I smiled. This place was so Sharpay.

"I know right?" She said, seeing my expression. She slid down against the wall. "This was where I spent all of my time."

"I like it." I admitted. "So tell me about the Sharpay Evans charmed life. I've read about it but I'd love to get a firsthand account."

"There's really nothing to say about it." She said with a shrug. "

"Oh come on... there must be something going on." I teased, sliding down next to her. "Scandals, rebellions, guys... give me something."

"The guys at these school are nothing special." She said, looking at me with this honest look. "They're cool to be friends with and all that stuff, but when it comes to dating, they're all just huge jerks. The only nice guys I've ever met in these private schools were gay." I let out a small laugh at that. "No... I'm seriously. The only nice ones were gay and well... Brandon. And we all know how that turned out." She rolled her eyes. "And all the other guys in the universe are too boring. I mean, is there such thing as a guy who's fun, exciting and not a total jerk?"

I let out a weak laugh at that. "You're asking the wrong guy. As far as boyfriends go I'm pretty much a lost cause. I mean, seriously this is the guy who didn't say I love you back to his emotionally unstable girlfriend, I'm not exactly the love doctor." I said, scowling.

"Well love doctor or no love doctor, you still beat the losers here." Sharpay said, resting her head against the wooden wall, a guilty look making its way across her face.

I sat up straight. "Wait... what's wrong?"

Sharpay shook her head and smiled unconvincingly. "It's... nothing, really."

"Seriously Shar... what's up?" I asked.

"Nothing... She asked.

I gave her a look and leaned back against the wall. "What are you talking about? Look Sharpay I'm fine... I'm just worried about you."

She scowled and shook her head at me. "You have no clue what you're talking about"

"Yes... I do." I said, taking a deep breath. "Look, my dad died... and I barely even knew him. It's been hard...but ever since you've been here... I just don't know what I'm doing or what I'm going to do. I just know that I'm happier now."

Sharpay smiled at that. "That was possibly the corniest thing I've ever heard... which is why it's so weird that I loved hearing it." Her smile faded. "But I shouldn't... and you shouldn't have said it."

I looked away, embarrassed. "I know." I mumbled. There was a long silence. "But... it's true. And right now, it's just about the only thing that I'm sure of." I stopped and realized what I was saying. "I feel like an idiot."

"You're not an idiot." She muttered, standing up. "Look... Troy, you really need to talk to Gabriella"

"Why?" I asked, scrambling to my feet. "Is everything okay?"

"Just talk to her okay? Just do it for me... please?" She asked me, sounding remarkably unlike herself.

"What's wrong?" I asked putting my hand on her shoulder. "Just tell me what it is."

I heard the door open. "What the hell!?"

In my head, I went all _does this have to happen like, one every other day_ but at the same time I knew that it would be best to just try to explain. Sharpay had pulled away from me, so I took a step towards the door. "Gabriella... this really isn't what it looks like."

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE... WITH HER!?" Gabriella screamed.

I took her hand, trying to calm her down "Look we were just talking... in fact Sharpay just said-"

"DON'T LISTEN TO A SINGLE WORD THAT SAYS! SHE'S JUST A STUCK UP PREP SCHOOL SLUT WHO HAS TO GET OVER HERSEL! YOU'RE MY BOYFRIEND! REMEMBER?"

"Hey! Don't call her that!" I said, getting a good look at Gabriella. "Wait... are you drunk?"

"WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING HER!?" She asked, ignoring my question (and answering at the same time). "SHE DOESN'T EVEN LIKE YOU! IT IS SO OBVIOUS THAT SHE'S STILL HUNG UP OVER THAT BRONDON GUY!"

I looked from Gabriella, to Sharpay, to Gabriella then back to Sharpay. She had an icy look on her face and I could tell that Gabriella ad crossed the line. "You can say whatever you want about me, or my friends and you can walk around with that little fake innocent girl thing for as long as you want and delude yourself into thinking that people like you but don't you dare bring Brandon into this."

"Don't try to fool me with the whole star struck lover thing. Your still just the whore making out with her stepbrother onfront of his girlfriend!"

"Says the girl who uses her boyfriend as an excuse to drink all the time!"

"SAYS THE BITCH WHO'S ONLY HEAR TO GET ENOUGH MONEY TO GO BACK TO HER FANCY NEW YORK PREP SCHOOL!"

"SAYS THE GIRL WHO CHEATED ON HER BOYFRIEND WITH HIS BEST FRIEND!"

**Ahh... don't you just love catfights? Me too... So I think I've officially been cured of my writer's block so you probably won't have to wait two months to see how this turns out (not that I think any of you are counting the minutes until I update or anything). I kept on having to rewrite this for some reason. There was one version where Sharpay got drunk and made out with Troy... then there was a version where Gabriella got high and almost drowned... and there was a version where Gabriella found Troy's stash of drugs (remember from chapter one?) but I decided that this one was best... but you can look out for some major drama upcoming. Bye.**


	11. Can't think of a title sorry

**Ha! I told you that it wouldn't take me two months this time, I guess that's because I'm finally getting to the good part. Hey, did any of you guys see Minutemen on disney? I noticed it had some very un-Disney like qualities, like the guy ended up with the popular girl (who wasn't a snob), and he and his former friend who lost touch didn't put aside their differences and become best friends again, and the geeks (who are traditionally supposed to be the only people who understand that there is no importance in social status) turned into snobs. It was actually pretty cool to see a new approach to high school other than the 'mean girl who rules the school, lovable geeks, and the underdog who proves himself and ends up with the bestfriend'. Okay... you can go ahead and read the story now. **

Sharpay's POV

"What" Troy started, after a very awkward silence. "Did she mean by that, Gabriella?" His voice was strange, serious, and shocked... yet calm.

Gabriella, who seemed like she was in shock, finally seemed to snap out of it. "Troy... Troy! You can't possibly believe her can you?" She asked... but her voice was too slurred for anyone to take seriously. She ran towards Troy, but lost her balance and grabbed onto the collar of Troy's shirt.

Troy steadily held her by her shoulders and gently pushed her off of him. "I want you to stop talking and get home." He said, his voice icy.

"There is nothing between me and Chad... it was only once! I swear! I love you and only you. Did you hear me? I... LOVE... YOU!" She screamed in Troy's face. Troy made a face as if her breath was bad.

There was a long silence. Even I was surprised. I was expecting something along the lines of him taking her in his arms and promising to stay with her forever... that was not what happened next. "Sharpay." He said, his voice was still icy. He didn't even turn to face me. "Can you call for the limo? We need to get her home, you think you can call her mom and-"

"You're ratting me out to my mother!?" Gabriella screamed. "Troy... I thought you loved me!"

"We're taking you home Gabriella." Troy said, in a voice that even had me convinced that there was no way to get around him (though I'm pretty sure I could take him if I tried)... I guess his inner politician decided to speak up.

"I'm going to go call the limo." I said, slipping through the door when I felt a hand gripping around my arm.

"This is all your fault!" Gabriella screamed in my face, her breath wasn't exactly the greatest at that moment. "Everyone at this party thinks I'm a joke! My boyfriend doesn't love me! And my mom is going to murder me if she sees me like this again!"

I looked at her... honestly, I get that she had probably "Sorry, but you're not going to blame this one on me."

She looked at me and burst out into tears. "YES! I AM! I HATE YOU! YOU ARE A TOTAL SLUT OUT TO STEAL MY BOYFRIEND!"

"Okay... I'm sorry that Troy had to hear about you and Chad like that, but he was going to find out sooner or later, and you can't blame me that you decided to sleep with your boyfriend's best friend-"

"Sharpay! Just call the limo. Okay?" Troy said, his voice still all icy.

I felt like such a total idiot. I mean I was here, snapping at Gabriella, when Troy had just found out that his best friend and his girlfriend were having sex behind his back! I walked away and made the call. And naturally the next thing I had to do was find Kelsi.

"Are you serious? Gabriella and Chad? You and Troy? A drunk Gabriella screaming 'I love you' at a dead serious Troy and him just holding her down as a response? That one is going straight to the blogs." Kelsi said.

"I know! It was like we turned into one of those day time soaps! Only, strangely enough, I didn't feel like laughing when I saw the whole thing unfold." I said.

"You know that people are going to start talking, right? I mean, that little shack of yours isn't completely secluded, I heard a few people chatting about, a crazy girl screaming at some depressed looking dude while he got out of that shack thing with a blond bombshell -their words not mine- it won't belong before they fill in the blanks."

"I'm the blond bombshell?" I asked incredulously.

"No, Troy is." Kelsi replied sarcastically. "Of course you're the blond bombshell!"

"Okay... I feel both flattered and totally freaked out... I mean, imagine the incest rumors." I said, scrunching up my face.

"Oh please, it's not as if you guys are actually related. His dad adopted you, you're not his cousin or anything!" Kelsi said. "Besides, in a weird the-big-city-girl-with-a-tragic-past-learning-to-love-again meets the-small-town-golden-boy-with-a-dark-side way you two are kind of made for each other."

"Shut up Kelsi, as I have told you time and time again, I only need five things in this world, and those are my guitar, my lucky jeans, my iPod, Starbucks, and of course, Johnny Depp. No room for Troy in that mix." I said with a shrug.

"Though I still have no clue how you can overlook lip gloss, your cell phone, MTV, Chinese food, and your flat iron... not to mention oxygen, but that is besides the point. I mean, the list of things you needed went from one all the way to five, what's the danger of going one up to six? Besides Troy thinks you're a babe." Kelsi said, elbowing me.

"Okay, first of all, Johnny Depp is my oxygen, and second of all, so what if Troy did think I'm a babe? Ninety-five percent of the straight males I've met think so too, not all of them like me though." I shot back.

"Yeah, but seriously, you and Troy just... click. You know?" Kelsi asked.

I huffed. "Look, can you just tell Taylor that we're leaving... though I highly doubt that she'll want to ride in the same car as Gabriella."

Kelsi nodded. "Sure. What about Chad?"

I scowled. "I think it would be safer for him if he just... found his own way home, you know?"

"I hear you loud and clear, I'll go catch Tay and give her some cab money, I'll meet you in the parking lot." Kelsi said.

"You rock Kelsi." I said, walking back, hoping that no one would notice the drunk brunette getting into the limo.

**xXxXx**

Gabriella's POV

I woke up and immediately wanted to go back to sleep. The light seemed blinding. I recognized the place as my room. I saw a figure sitting on the chair near my bed. "T-Troy?"

The figure looked up at me. "No Gabriella. I'm not your boyfriend, and the way he brought you home last night, neither is Troy."

I sat up straight, ignoring the fact that my world was spinning. "Mom! You aren't going to stop me from seeing Troy! You wouldn't dare!" I screamed as loud as I could. I instantly regretted it when my ears started hurting.

She shook her head at me. "You're right Gabi, I wouldn't. That boy was nothing but kind to you! Do you know how rare it is that a boy tries to bring you home when you're as drunk as you were last night!? If it wasn't for him and that Sharpay girl-"

"DON'T YOU SAY A SINGLE GOOD WORD ABOUT SHARPAY EVANS MOM! SHE'S A BACKSTABBING BOYFRIEND STEALING BITCH! AND SHE'LL NEVER CHANGE!"

"She never did anything bad to Gabriella! In fact she apologized on behalf of her friends who provided the alcohol and assured me that you were very responsible from what she and Troy saw. She was as shocked as I was when I first saw you!"

"SHE RUINED MY LIFE!" I screamed.

"She did no such thing! You know I love you Gabriella but you did this to yourself." She looked at me with anger in her eyes.

I did my best to look calm. "You're right mom." I said, pushing hair out of my face and trying to look as put together as possible. "Can I at least go over there, you know, to apologize?"

Her expression softened. "Of coarse Gabi. I'm just glad that you're taking responsibility for your actions."

"Thank you mom." I said. "I'll call first, just so that I won't surprise them." My mom nodded and I smiled. I had a lot of work to do if I was going to make this works.

**xXxXx**

Troy's POV

I sat on my bed, looking at a picture, it was our family portrait from when I was thirteen, we had to take one because we were the faces of this stupid Wholesome Household campaign. My dad was wearing a flannel shirt and cargo pants (he doesn't even own one, he had to trade shirts with one of the photography crew), I was wearing a T-shirt and my East Middle School Basketball team letterman jacket. Sharpay (who was originally supposed to dress up as an academic) came wearing her vans, straight jeans and band tee, scowling her usual Sharpay scowl. My dad made me frame it and keep it in my room, because for some reason the public had a strange obsession with looking in other people's rooms. I figured I'd take it down... I just never got around to it.

"Hey." I heard a voice coming from the doorway... the unmistakable voice of Sharpay. I quickly put the picture under my bed. "You're not doing drugs in their, are you?"

"Hey Shar." I smiled. "Nope, no drugs here."

"Are you sure? I mean, I' really thought you'd learned your lesson from the last time, but you know addicts, they don't learn from anything." She said, a fake scolding expression on her face and sitting down next to me. "You know I won't always be around to find you when you're high in a closet."

"For the record, I can't afford to get addicted, watching Gabriella get drunk every time we go out in public together turned me off from ever getting addicted to anything... and the truth is that I only really used drugs twice before, I figured that if Gabriella found out she'd go all intervention on me." I said with a smile.

"So you two are... still together?" She asked.

I was silent for a minute. "No." I said, this was followed by another long awkward silence.

"Is it because of what happened with her and Chad? Because if you guys just talked or something I'm sure you guys would be able to figure it out. I mean seriously, this has happened to so many couples and they found a way to-"

"It wasn't about that... and it wasn't about you either if that's what you're thinking." I said, noticing the guilty expression on Sharpay's face. "We never really were a couple... you know? We never had anything romantic, it was just... I don't know... convenient. She could look like the perfect, smart, innocent, girl on front of the public, but I that was all she ever was... I guess it went too far."

Sharpay snorted. "Well it's a little late to figure that out now... I mean, do you want me to start counting how many times she goes all psychotic in the name of her undying love for you?"

I let out a small laugh at that one. "Okay... point taken. But still, I can't just let this go on."

"Well what are you going to do? Dump her?" Sharpay asked, as if that wasn't a possibility.

"No, I was actually planning to marry her and have a bunch of tiny little tiny psychopathic children." I answered sarcastically.

"I see your point." Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Well how are you going to do it? I mean, breaking up is usually best done privately but in Gabriella's case the more witnesses the better." Sharpay said, faking concern.

"That was not funny." I said. "I'm just worried that she'll make a scene or go out and do something stupid."

"I think it would be best if you made sure that there are no sharp objects in the area while you do it." Sharpay said with a laugh.

"Still not funny." I gave her a look and she shrugged.

"Okay... seriously, try it out on me. I'm Gabriella." She said.

"Still not funny."

"I'm not kidding." She said, playfully punching me in the arm. She made a huge smile and tried to look as innocent as possible. "Troy, you know I love you, and I would never do anything to hurt you, I was just so confused, I was just talking to Chad about you... he thinks you've changed since that bitch Sharpay came back too you know, and then it just... happened." She said in a perfect impression of Gabriella.

"Wow. That was uncanny." I said, kind of freaked out.

"Just shut up and play along." She said, her voice still all like Gabriella. "You can't possibly still be mad at me, I mean, we've been together for as long as I've remembered, I made you my whole life, you wouldn't take that away from me just because I made one stupid little mistake... would you?"

"You see Gabriella, this isn't even about what happened to Chad, this is what's going on between us right now. We never had a real connection, and we can't just pretend that we love each other when we don't." I said, trying not to smile.

"Impressive... bonus points for sounding like Doctor Phil... it lowers the chances of her going all Jerry Springer on you." Sharpay said, her voice going back to normal.

"Now what would I possibly do without you?" I asked with a smile. "I mean... a lame as this sounds, Gabriella was my only girlfriend... making this my first breakup."

"Consider this one of the many services of your friendly neighborhood Sharpay." She said with a smile. "Of course if Gabriella was here she would be all 'Troy! Get away from that crazy slut! She's going to ruin your life!'" Sharpay said.

"Please stop with the Gabriella voice, it gives me a headache." I said.

"Oh come on Troy, you know you love it when I talk like this." Sharpay said, still refusing to stop talking like Gabriella. "I mean, I love you! And that will never change! Do you hear me? I LOVE YOU! Wait! I don't think the neighbors heard me! **I LOVE YOU!** I looooove you!"

And then we were laughing... then somehow it went from laughing to kissing. The familiar sensation of the entire world melting away came back to me. And I started remembering the first time we kissed, somehow every one of my priorities had changed since then. And then I was all of a sudden aware of what was happening, it was like I knew that I should have stopped and pulled away from her... but I couldn't. We only parted for milliseconds for oxygen. All of a sudden we weren't sitting anymore, we were rolling over each other, I wasn't thinking anymore... it was like my mind turned off and something was moving me. Then the next thing I knew we were hastily pushing away discarded clothing. The only thing that mattered at that moment was that I was with her.

**How incredibly awkward was that? I seriously have no ability to write about kissing and... other stuff. So unfortunitely, I couldn't find my copy of love scenes for dummies, so you guys are stuck with the horribly written mess that is that last paragraph. Hey, at least it didn't take me two months to update this time. The next chapter should be up pretty soon, I have a lot of it done. Lots and lots of drama on the way, so look out for that. Okay, I am totally fighting the urge to start typing spoilers for what is going to happen next, but I don't want to ruin it for those of you who read my pointless author's notes though I seriously appreciate those of you who care enough, to read these) . So I'll just go now to stop myself... bye! **


	12. He's baack

**CALLING ALL READERS!!! Are you guys all there? Okay now what I want you to do is remember all that Troypay happiness of the last chapter (what with Troy and Sharpay hooking up and all)... okay...do have all of it? Now... let it go... all of it. Because this chapter is going to destroy ALL of it. Don't blame me, part of being a writer (not neccessarilly a good writer, bit still...) is telling people what they don't want to hear (and yes... that means that Gabriella won't be dying any time soon), and trust me... this chapter is not what you want to hear.**

Gabriella's POV

I entered a busy corporate office, there was an endless amount men that were over fifty, I was sort of freaked out by the amount of inappropriate looks those guys were giving me. I was grateful when I found the office door marked Alfred Mason. I knocked, and Alfred opened the door.

"You're that Bolton kid's girlfriend right?" He asked. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No, but the Bolton family's lawyers will definitely think that this is worth your time." I said, entering the office.

"Well, though this sounds interesting, false gossip leads aren't exactly of very high priority here." Al said, sitting down at his desk, obviously not taking me seriously.

"What if I were to tall you that Troy Bolton was in love with his step sister?" I asked him.

He looked up at me. "The Evans girl?"

I shrugged. "The girl has blinded him. She's obviously just here to get her money and go. But not just that, she has quite an influence on him." I pulled a small plastic bag out of my pocket. "Exhibit A."

Al picked up the bag. "Is this weed?"

"Yes."

"Are you saying that Sharpay gave him drugs?" Al asked.

"Where else would he get it from" His circle of friends is very tight knit and very straight edge."

"How long has this been going on?"

"Well he has seemed pretty... erratic lately if you ask me." I said, trying my best to look worried. "I can only assume that he's addicted. And I'm not the only one who sees it... it's really only a matter of time until the press gets a hold of this, then every little fund that the Bolton family ever supported would turn into a joke... you know how many lawyers would be on your back if that happened?" I asked.

"I see your point." Al said, scowling.

"I was actually thinking, public intervention, go all public and say that it was a mixture of grief, lapse of judgment, and mixing with the wrong crowd. Get Sharpay out of the picture, I mean, a year's tuition to that school in New York won't cost that much in the long run."

"Thank you Gabriella, you know, you may have a future in politics."

"I was actually wondering if you could do me a favor." I said, still trying to sound sweet.

"What do you need?" He asked, going back to his work.

"I need to contact a nineteen year old boy named Brandon Calvin. I could only manage to get his last name on my own. The only thing I know other than that is that he goes to some boarding school in Canada, he may have been moved to another school though." I said, straining for details.

"This better be pretty important if that's all the information that you're giving me." He said, still not looking up.

"Trust me, we're both working for the same cause here." I said with a smile. "Thank you for your time." I said, happy that this had worked out exactly as I had hoped it would.

**xXxXx**

Sharpay's POV

I couldn't believe what had happened. Here I was naked, lying in my stepbrother's bed, after having sex with him. I mean, it wasn't like a kiss... it wasn't easy to take back, I couldn't just say that it was one of those 'in the moment' things, because the truth was, there were a lot of moments where either of us could have pulled away. And what was worse was that I didn't want to take it back. And I knew that was wrong. I know that we weren't actually related, but I guess I had always thought of him as the annoying brother and not as a guy. But really, the worst part of it all was that I just couldn't bring myself to feel disgusted by everything that had happened. I couldn't bring myself to move or speak. I was busy trying to talk some sense into myself (however weird that may sound) when I heard the familiar chorus of Chicago is So Two Years Ago by Fall Out Boy. I sat up reached down to the pocket of my jeans.

"Hello?" I said into the phone, my voice was tired.

"Sharpay, is that you? Holy shit! That girl wasn't lying! Is that really you Pay?"

"Depends, who wants to know?" I asked, officially interested.

The voice seemed amused by this. "I'll give you a hint, I am permanently imprinted on your heart... and on the back of your left shoulder."

"Ha ha, very funny, just tell me who gave you this number and no one gets hurt." I said, rolling my eyes... this has happened before.

"No seriously, I swear... this is Brandon Calvin. If I wasn't Brandon would I know that you had a dog named Blondie back when you lived with your real parents... you found him in the park and kept him a secret until you found out the hard way that your brother was allergic to dogs. He had to go to the ER because he broke out into hives." Okay... it was Brandon. "Look, some girl called me and gave me your number. I don't know who it was or why she called, but I'm glad she did."

"Why are you calling me?"

"You have no clue how hoard I've been trying to find you."

"How's Audrey?"

"That isn't fair... you know I had no say in what happened."

"I know you didn't even try to stop it when it did. How do I know you two aren't together right now?"

"If we were together, why would I be calling you?"

"Sounds like something Audrey would put you up to."

"Come on Shar, just listen to me."

I paused for a moment. "I'm listening."

"If you were with me right now, would you give me a second chance?"

I paused again. "I-I really don't know."

"Well, I guess your going to have to decide fast."

"And why is that?"

"Because the plane lands in Albuquerque in an hour."

"What?"

"Just meet me at the airport in like, an hour and a half. Okay?"

I was silent.

"Okay, don't talk, because I know you'll be there." He said. "Bye Shar, I'll see you soon."

I heard the dial tone and I closed my phone. I couldn't believe this was happening, and of all the time and places in the world he had to decide to come back now. I looked over at the sleeping body next to me. I had to do something! I finally felt disgusted, like I was trying to make myself feel only minutes earlier. What was I supposed to do? Okay, I had to take a shower. I needed to change, this was possibly one of the worst situations I had ever been in.

**xXxXx**

Troy's POV

I woke up and smiled. I couldn't believe what had just happened. And I couldn't believe that I was so happy about it. "Are you awake Sharpay?" I asked quietly. There was no reply. "Sharpay?" I asked looking up, just to see that there was no one there.

At first I was worried, then I saw it. A note. She had left a note. As stupid as I felt at that moment, I still picked it up and read it.

_I am so sorry, _

_It wasn't supposed to happen this way._

_Please believe me that I never meant to run off._

_We both have some things that we need to figure out _

_I swear that when I get back we'll talk,_

_Sharpay_

I couldn't believe this. I didn't know what to think... Did she think I used her? Did Gabriella get to her? Was she over me? Did we even have something to get over? Was this all part of some plan? Did she even want me in the first place? No... I knew Sharpay, she really wasn't like this... she would never do something like this. She didn't run away like this... what had happened between now and last night?

**xXxXx**

I waited outside the air port, what was I doing? I mean, I had spent the past year building myself back up again after what had happened with Brandon... and now here I was, waiting for him. This was not supposed to happen. Okay... I guess I sort of wanted this to happen, I mean, I had no closure, I didn't know if he wanted us to stay together or if he didn't. And that was what I needed.

I saw a boy wearing a 30 Seconds to Mars band T-shirt, dark jeans, and vans. He had somewhat long (but definitely not mullet like) dark brown hair, and he had a duffel bag balanced on his shoulder. I couldn't believe it... after all this time he still made me melt... which made me angry at myself.

"Pay! I haven't seen you in forever!" He said, taking me by surprise in a gigantic hug.

"Nice to see you too Brandon." I said, awkwardly hugging him back.

"You have no idea how great it is to hear you voice again." He said, finally letting go of me.

"You heard it on the phone, didn't you?" I asked.

"Have you no sense of romance?" He asked playfully.

"Not for ex boyfriends who decide to come back into your life after being out of contact for a year." I said.

"Come on Shar, I thought we were over this." Brandon smiled sheepishly. "Come on... we can go to Starbucks... your caramel macchiato with extra whipped cream is on me."

I crossed my arms, mentally giving him bonus points for remembering my favorite drink, but glaring at him, trying my best to look firm in my grudge. "That's not fair... you know coffee is my heroin."

"And that's exactly why I'm using it against you." He smiled down at me, okay I was totally sold now... why did he have to be so hott? Luckily, I managed to maintain my glare. This only made Brandon's smile grow, he could crack me, and he knew it. "Okay, how about this, caramel macchiato with extra whipped cream, _and_ I'll throw in tiramisu."

I couldn't help but smile. "Coffee and coffee cake? You are totally feeding my addiction, here. Not to mention exploiting it." I laughed, letting go of myself. I felt like it was last year again, there were no issues, no problems, and no other people... okay so there was _one_ other person. But I had finally convinced myself that what had happened last night was out of confusion and didn't mean anything other than we both had some issues that we needed resolve. "But I must warn you that people here have no good coffee."

"Don't they have a Starbucks or something?" He asked.

"Yeah... an hour across town." I said with a scowl.

"Have no fear Pay, I still have the amazing coffee radar. If there is any coffee shop here worthy of your presence, I will find it." He said, using his fake super hero voice. "As long as you let me drive."

"No way. Remember last time I let you drive my car? I had to spend a fortune on all those damages, not to mention persuading that soccer mom not to sue. I'd rather drink mud then let you behind the wheel of my car again." I said with a smile.

"Well that's good, because if you don't let me drive, mud is just about what you'll be drinking." Brandon said with a smug look. "Don't deny it, you know I'm right." He shrugged.

I huffed. "Stop at all the lights and stop signs, no yelling at other drivers out the windows, and don't assume that going 100 miles an hour will make animals cross the road any faster than their current speed."

"Don't worry... after the first few times I got the hang of avoiding colliding with live animals while operating moving vehicles." Brandon said, putting his hand over his heart and faked like he was about to cry.

"Well, someone's made major progress since we last spoke." I said, acting impressed.

"Well I thought it was time to make a change." He said, and for about half a second I thought he was being serious. "Plus all those hang up calls from PETA were making me kind of nervous."

I rolled my eyes, and tossed him my keys. "Same old Brandon."

"You know you love me." He called back to me, heading for my car.

I was about to yell something back when I heard he chorus of I'm Not Okay by My Chemical Romance blaring from my pocket, signifying that someone was texting me. At first I freaked out, thinking that it was Troy, but then I saw that it was just Kelsi.

_WTHAY? U said we were meeting up?_

I smiled at her inability to abbreviate... and because I was incredibly glad that it wasn't you-know-who.

"Hey Brandon, turn around." I said, holding up the phone. "Smile... for posterity's sake?"

Brandon rolled his yes and smiled. "You should really give me more notice before taking pictures, looking this cute takes time and effort."

"Imagine how long it takes to look like me." I replied sarcastically.

"Touché." He said. "Come on, I can't keep the engine running forever, think about global warming!"

I smiled and followed him into the car.

**xXxXx**

Troy's POV

I couldn't believe I was asking Sharpay's best friend where she was. I mean, I was pushing stalker here.

"I'm serious, she was supposed be here like, twenty minutes ago. This is so classic Shar. Once, she forgot to call for a limo on the night of this gigantic costume party at the Albuquerque Grand Hotel, we were left standing outside the hotel all dressed up like gypsies for like, an hour." Kelsi said, picking up her cell phone, I never realized she was this confident, I guess she was like Sharpay in the way that they were both selective in who they let into their worlds.

"But can you call her or something?" I asked.

"I'm texting her as we speak." Kelsi said, not taking her eyes off of her phone. After a moment she put it on the table.

"What now?" I asked.

"Now we wait." Kelsi said slowly, as if she was explaining this to a five year old. "What's with the extreme need to contact her anyways? Gabriella would be pretty pissed off if she knew about this."

"We aren't together anymore." I answered quickly.

I'm sure that this was pretty much the last thing that she had expected to hear. "No kidding?" She asked. I shrugged. "Well I'm sorry but I have to say that it's about time." I smiled at Kelsi's seemingly new found confidence. I heard a song coming from the phone. "And it looks like we have an explanation." She said, pressing s few buttons on the phone and reading the message all in about three seconds.

"What does it say?" I asked.

"She... she's just running late." Kelsi said, but her face said otherwise. "Just another example of typical Sharpay."

I took the phone out of her hands. It was a picture of a guy in a parking lot with te caption under it saying _he's baack_ I could tell by the way that she had used two A's that I was supposed to be sung and not said.

"That's just one of her brother's old friends that tracked her down... you know, he wanted to say hi while he was in town." She explained, somehow knowing that I didn't want to see what I saw. But I already knew that this guy was Brandon... Brandon as in the guy from the tattoo.

**I'm sure a lot of you could have guessed that this was going to happen sooner or later. I mean, Troy and Sharpay can never seem to just fall into eachother's arms, and as you've probably noticed, I wanted to make Brandon a nice guy. I mean Sharpay tatood his name on her back for a reason... but it was kind of hard not making him a total jerk, but it got easier once I gave him a personality... that's all I have to say for now... well, bye.**


	13. She's gone

**Hey guys, sorry's its been like, a month since I last updated, but I've been like completely swamped with work. But luckily for me, I got a four day weekend starting today. And since all of my friends seem to either have babysitting jobs or are sick (damn strepthroat), so that means that I get to do what I always do on days like this. So far I've had two cans of monster energy drink for breakfast, watched every single thing I've Tivoed but never got the chance to watch, and eaten half a box of reeses puffs, then next thing on my list of things to do on a day off is post a chapter. Unfortunately for you, the Troypayness in this chapter is also in short supply. But I guess all Troypay lovers have to eventually learn patience beause all the big Disney executives would rather see the guy end up with the brainy girl and not the misunderstood outsider. But I'll just stop ranting now so you can read... **

Sharpay's POV

"Oh my god... the coffee at that place totally kicked ass!" I said, still buzzed from that last cappuccino.

"What did I tell you about the amazing coffee radar?" Brandon asked mockingly.

"The weird part is that I must have walked past Fender's like, a billion times on my way to the music store right across the street, and never once thought that it was a coffee place... let alone one of the few good ones!" I said.

Brandon looked down at me and smiled. "Well what did you think it was?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, maybe a comic book store, or one of those places where fifty year old motorcyclists buys those weird bandanas with studs on them."

"You know I've always wondered where they find those... maybe one would look good on me." Brandon said.

I looked up at him and squinted. "Yeah... I could totally see that."

Brandon smiled his 'I'm so adorable, and yet totally unaware how adorable I am' smile. Just seeing it made me smile too, which was probably what he was unintentionally aiming for. And for a minute, we just smiled at each other... and did nothing else. "So where to now?"

"I totally have to show you off to Kelsi." I said, snapping back to reality.

"Okay, first of all, I don't appreciate you treating me like an object, and second of all, what exactly have you told Kelsi about me? I mean, I'm not a huge fan of the whole you-broke-my-best-friend's-heart speech."

"Oh, you'll be fine." I said rolling my eyes.

"As long as this doesn't turn into an episode of a bad soap."

"So I'm not worth life being an episode of a bad soap?" I asked, exaggerating a gasp. "I'm a little offended by that. I thought I meant something to you!" I said, over dramatically.

"Hey, I spent Valentines day sitting in a dorm, watching a Buffy the Vampire Slayer marathon with an endless supply of Ben and Jerry's for you. That means something." Brandon said, recally back to when we were a couple.

"Point taken." I said with a smile. "Chop! Chop! We have to get to Kelsi's, remember?"

xXxXx

Troy's POV

"Are you sure you don't want to wait a few more minutes? I mean clearly, what ever you have to say is pretty important." Kelsi said as I headed for the door.

"Yeah... I mean, it's been about an hour... she's probably out somewhere with Brandon having a good time right now." I cringed a little bit at his name. I mean, how could she do this to me? I don't want to seem like a total wimp but I just wanted things to be the way that the were a last night, me and Sharpay... she just brought something out that made me feel like I was someone different who didn't have all this crap going on.

"You knew that was him?" Kelsi asked, giving me a sympathetic look. This was weird... I didn't tell her anything about what happened earlier. Maybe writers had some kind of a sixth sense.

"Yeah... why do you look so sad for me? It's not like this guy did anything to me." I said, trying my best to sound nonchalant.

"Oh come on Bolton... stop pretending like none of us see what's going on. Something happened, and I'm sorry if she totally ditched you for Brandon afterwards, but she's not exactly in a great place right now. I mean, the past year has been hell for her."

"What do you mean?" I asked, starting to get kind of worried. It sounded so... ominous the way Kelsi said it... as if she were talking life or death.

"Never mind... just don't hold anything against her right now." Kelsi said. Looking past me, out the window. "And now would be a good time to remember this because she's here now... and she brought company."

I looked a Kelsi, I can only assume how idiotic I looked, just gaping. It was no wonder that she had figured out about me and Sharpay... I was such an opened book. I ignored this and got to what was on my mind. "And by company you mean..."

"Pay! You're finally here... and you must be Brandon." Kelsi said, pushing past me, hugging Sharpay and looking up at Brandon, then giving Sharpay an approving glance.

"So you're Kelsi. I have heard so much about you! I'm serious, ever since day one, Sharpay never stopped with the Kelsi stories." Brandon said.

"I am so sorry that I'm late. I had to pick Brandon up from the air port... and then we went out for coffee, and I just lost track of time." Sharpay said, with an effortless shrug.

"Is that Kelsi's brother or something?" Brandon asked, nodding towards me.

Sharpay looked up at me, pure panic in her eyes (it was kind of insulting actually), then she seemed to calm down and shrug. "No, actually, he's mine... stepbrother that is. Troy, meet Brandon, Brandon, meet Troy." She said, awkwardly (which was strange, because she never seemed to do anything awkwardly) gesturing from the boy linked to her then to me.

"Hey man." Brandon said.

Sharpay turned to Kelsi. "So I actually thought that'd we could drop Brandon off at his hotel, then we could go downtown and shop until we can feel our college education slipping away with each pair of ridiculously expensive and yet totally addictive pair of Italian shoes."

"Sounds fun." Kelsi said.

"All I need to do is borrow your something to get the frizz out of my hair." She complained, running her fingers through her hair.

"All my products are in my room." Kelsi pointed up the stairs.

"Bless you." Sharpay smiled at her friend as she walked up the stairs.

I didn't know what I was doing, hell, I didn't even realize that I was moving until I heard Kelsi talking. "Troy... where are you going."

"Bathroom." I muttered. I vaguely remembered Kelsi saying something about there being a bathroom downstairs, but I wasn't listening. All I was doing was following Sharpay.

**xXxXx **

Sharpay's POV

I was running some leave in conditioner through my hair when I heard Kelsi's door open. "Sharpay..." was all he said, and yet I felt totally idiotic about what I did.

"Look, I am so incredibly sorry about what happened. It really wasn't supposed to happen like that... It really wasn't supposed to happen at all. And you know that I'm not the kind of person to just have sex with someone and then just act like it didn't happen, but I really have no other way of explaining it... I'd take it back if I could... but I don't think I can." I looked down... I didn't want to see his face at this point. "It's not that there was anything wrong with you, I've just been... having a rough time lately, and you were being so sweet, and well..." I trailed off. "Listen Troy... I'm really, really, sorry about the way this turned out."

There was a long, awkward silence. Troy finally spoke. "You're right." He said, clearing his throat. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay... the way you ran off like that had me pretty worried."

For a moment I felt like a gigantic weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. "Oh my god Troy, you have no idea how amazing this is." I said, a smile making its way across my face. "I'm so sorry that this happened in the first place."

"No problem" Troy said plainly.

"Hey are you sure that you're okay? I mean... we could talk some more if you want to." I offered. "I really want us to be okay. And I know that I just can't take what happened back... but I really just want us to be okay with each other."

"Yeah... we are most definitely one hundred percent okay." Troy said, giving me a smile that almost seemed forced.

"Hey, maybe you should get home, you might be sick or something, because you don't sound normal." I said, still convinced that he wasn't okay.

"Yeah... I've been feeling pretty sick lately." Troy said.

I smiled. "I'm glad that we could work this out."

"Hey Shar... just one more question." He said... his voice still all quiet and hoarse.

"Go ahead."

Troy paused. "Do you really think that this will work out... with Brandon?"

I smiled. "I really think it will." I said, looking in the mirror one last time and leaving the room.

**xXxXx**

"So how's the musical coming?" I asked Kelsi as we carried our bags to my car.

"Oh, so you're still sticking around for the musical?" Kelsi asked.

"Um... yeah, that was the plan?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at Kelsi. "Don't you remember? Parker Jamison Academy? New York City? Does any of this ring a bell?"

"I don't know... I mean, you haven't been completely honest about everything that's happened while you weren't here, have you?" Kelsi asked. "I mean, it wouldn't be anything new if you just up rooted and left something behind... or someone... like Troy for instance."

I stopped walking. "You talked to Troy... and he told you?"

"He didn't have to." Kels said, rolling her eyes at me. "Can you at least tell me how it happened?"

"We were just talking... and then it just escalated, from there I guess." I said, feeling unbelievably stupid.

"When did it happen?" Kelsi asked, still giving me the third degree.

"Would I sound like a total whore if I said that it was yesterday?"

"Oh my god Shar! Are you freaking kidding me?"

"Thanks... I totally don't feel like a whore now."

"You're not a whore Pay... but how could this happen? I mean, didn't you pick Brandon up from the airport at like, three in the morning? Wouldn't Troy notice that you were kind of not there?" Kelsi asked.

"I may have sort have left a note." I said... feeling incredibly sad.

"You left a note!?" Kelsi practically screamed.

"What else was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know... basically anything but that!"

"Okay can we stop making me feel bad now?"

Kelsi took a deep breath. "Did you guys at least talk?"

"Yeah... and he said that we were okay." I said, trying to justify myself.

"Oh come on Shar, the dude is totally in love with you."

"He's my step brother!"

"Meaning that you two aren't actually blood relatives! Come on Shar, you can't possibly believe that you can just balance Troy and Brandon when Troy is in love with you... and judging by last night you don't exactly hate him either."

"Troy is not in love with me! Can we just drop it?" I snapped.

"As long as you know that I'm totally against this" Kelsi said, getting into the car. She was just being stupid, I mean, I'd only been in town for like, a week or two. Love doesn't happen that fast, and besides, Troy couldn't be in love with me, he was just confused... I would be too if I were him. Whatever was going on with Troy had nothing to do with me... right?

**Okay... so here's the thing, the next chapter isn't going to get much happier. But I'll probably be able to get it up by tomorrow. OH! And did I tell you that I'm planning to write a storyafter this one? It's called The Game. Its not a sequal or anything but because of my inability to write two stories at once (one always keeps my attention and the other one just shrivvles up and dies) starting new stories is like, a huge deal to me. As you can guess, that means that this story is winding down. Which means that the Troypay happy ending is coming soon (I'm not exactly one for tragedy if you haven't figured out by now).**


	14. Not Meant to Be

**Hey guys, remember how I said that I'd be able to updat exactly a week ago, and never did? Sorry about that. I had some writing and rewriting to do. Today I am babysittingmyfive year old little brother who is screaming at me to get off the computer so he can go to the Thomas the Tank Engine website. So I have no time to rant. Enjoy reading.**

Troy's POV

I couldn't believe I didn't tell her. I mean I practically let her just slip out of my hands and fall right into that other guy's arms. It was just that she just seemed so... happy with Brandon. And that was all I wanted? Right? I mean, she was my stepsister after all.

So here I was, alone, in my room, with Sharpay's Buffy DVDs. I wasn't watching them or anything... just thinking about her. Damn, I was hung up on her. And it sucked. Usually, I wasn't into the whole 'guys getting all teary and emotional over girls' thing, but this was different, she didn't even see what was going on, she was just blissfully ignorant on exactly what was happening.

"Yoohoo!" I turned around, Gabriella was at the door. 

"Gabriella, what are you doing here?" I asked, seriously freaked out in her ability to get into my house when nobody (except for me) was home. "How did you get in?"

"That isn't important. What's important now is us" She grinned, stepping closer to me, pushing me down onto my bed. She grabbed the Buffy box set out of my hands "Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Since when do you watch this crap?" She asked, pulling the DVD out of my hands, throwing it in some random direction, and smashing her face against mine.

After managing to free my mouth from hers (which –surprise surprise- tasted like alcohol), I pushed her away from me, only to have her tackle me again. "Gabriella! Get off of me!" I yelled at her. For two reasons, first of all, she was kind of cutting off my oxygen supply and because she wasn't the one who I wanted to be with (call me a sap all you want... it's the truth). I finally got her off of me, and stood up

"Troy! You don't know what you want! But trust me... after tonight, you'll never think about that little Sharpay again." She said, pulling her dress over her head (revealing her latest Victoria's Secret purchase) while managing to pin me on the bed again.

"Gabriella... I want you to get off of me now." I said, pushing Gabriella off me. "Put your clothes back on." I said, tossing her dress in her general direction and getting off of my bed.

"Oh come on Troy, a month ago, you would have been begging for this." She said, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.

I pushed her away from me. "That ay be true... but I'm no the same person as I was a month ago."

"You don't mean that Troy! You were perfectly happy with me before she came to Albuquerque! And guess what? She didn't even come to stay, let alone for you!" She screamed.

"Gabriella... that isn't the point! Look, just get your dress on and we can talk about everything."

"This about Sharpay and you know it! Face it Troy... she's with the one that she wants and it isn't you. She will never be with you so just get on with your life!"

I couldn't believe she was saying that. "You're wrong." I managed to mutter quietly. 

"Well then how come she blew you off as soon as someone new came to town! And you know what? Right now, he's asking her to go back to the Parker Jamison Academy with him so they can be together in the big apple... and how much do you want to bet that she's saying yes?"

I stopped talking. That was a low blow, I seriously felt like I just got hit my a bus. "She's going back to New York." I said, unaware that I was speaking, it just sort of came out of my mouth on is own. It wasn't a question either... it was a statement. I saw how gaga she went over Brandon... there was no reason for her to stick around. "Gabriella... what did you do?"

"I just set the bait, Troy. I didn't tell her to take it or anything." As soon as I heard this, my sadness turned into rage. Realizing how much what she had said effected me, Gabriella looked like she was about to cry. "Troy... she's leaving! She's leaving so that we can be together!"

"We will never be together Gabriella! So get it into your head and stop ruining my life!" I screamed in her face... I'm pretty sure that it was the first time I'd ever screamed in anyone's face in my entire life. And it felt pretty damn good, I didn't want to just watch my life go by anymore... I had something to fight for. 

"Troy... we were so perfect. Why did this have to happen?" Gabriela asked me, now openly crying. "I mean, we were together for years! Don't let one person get in the way of all of that! I love you Troy, and somewhere in your heart you know you love me too. Don't just throw that away because some temporary distraction comes to town for a while.

I looked at her, for a second. And for the first time, the idea that we would be together forever didn't seem inevitable. "You just don't get it, do you?" I asked. "I love her, Gabriella. And it may seem stupid, but I'm sure that I'll never love anyone like I love her."

"She's leaving you, Troy." Her voice turning icy. "She's taking the next flight out of Albuquerque, and the odds are that she's never coming back. She probably isn't even planning on telling you." The sad part of that is that she was right.

Sharpay's POV

"Pay... I need to ask you something, it's pretty important." Brandon said.

"Shoot." I said, interested in what he was about to say, I mean usually if he wanted to ask me something, he would just ask without announcing it first... this had to pretty big.

"You know how mystery girl pretty much pushed me straight to your door?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah." I nodded, I'd pretty much put two and two together and figured out that Gabriella was the one responsible for Brandon's surprise return, probably some kind of a ploy to keep me away from Troy. And even though I'd hate to say her plan was working... but it seemed like this was one of those 'everyone wins' types of situations.

"And do you remember that school that you loved so much in New York?" Brandon asked, a huge smile plastered across his face.

"The Parker Jamison Academy? Well yeah I remember, it's the only reason I came back to Albuquerque." I asked. "If you don't mind me asking Brandon, where exactly is this going?"

Brandon smiled at me, like he couldn't wait to see how I would respond to whatever he as planning to ask me. "Well, who ever she is, she informed me that there are two places secured for both us at the Parker Jamison Academy and we can go to New York to finish the year!"

"Wait... what?" I asked.

"Come on Pay! You know this is exactly what you came her for, now we can leave... together!" Brandon took my hand. "You have no clue how long I've been waiting for this Shar."

"Brandon... what if I don't want to leave here?" I asked.

Brandon looked as if I had just stabbed him. "Shar... we were supposed to be together. Remember? We never actually broke up."

"Yeah... I know, but all I needed was closure, and I think I just got it." I said, quietly. "Brandon, you know I love you... just not in the same way that I used to."

"Yeah, you mean not in the same way you love Troy." Brandon said, running his hand through his hair. Somehow everything about him seemed less mesmerizing... still gorgeous, just not as romantic as it used to seem.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Brandon smiled weakly. "Well you may not love me like you used to, but I still know you." He said, and I immediately could tell that I had been forgiven. I guess we were both looking for something that just didn't exist anymore. And even though it sort of sucked, it was good that we figured it out sooner rather than later. "You love the dude... at least admit it."

I smiled at Brandon, suddenly remembering how much Brandon rocked... even if I wasn't in love with him. "Yeah... I guess I do." I said, it felt good to (finally) admit it. "Is it weird that we're well... stepsiblings?"

Brandon shrugged. "Well, I don't mind it. I mean, if you'd dumped me for your cousin or something, then I'd be worried."

I let out a small laugh. "So are you sure that you're okay?"

"Well... yeah, as far as being dumped goes."

"That's good, because as soon as you get over the initial shock of this break up, I'm forcing you and Kelsi together against your will." I said with a smile.

"What? You mean that brunette girl?" Brandon asked, hiding a smile.

"Yes that brunette girl who you think is totally and completely gorgeous." Seeing Brandon's embarrassed expression, I smirked. "Hey, I still know you too. And just because we aren't together anymore does not mean that I won't still exploit your coffee radar."

Brandon smiled. "Well, this wasn't as excruciatingly painful as I thought it would be. I just have a feeling that mystery girl is going to be pretty pissed when she figures out that you're not planning to leave any time soon."

"Well, it's nice to know that you're not in excruciating pain." I said with a smile.

After a short (but strangely, not awkward) silence, Brandon smiled down at me. "Go find him."

"Huh?" I asked.

"You know what I mean... just go ahead." And then I realized how incredibly lucky I was to have a friend as awesome as Brandon. But at that moment, I had to go find my other favorite guy in the universe.

**xXxXx**

I couldn't believe that after all of this, I was at Troy's door, going to tell him that I loved him. I knocked, after an eternity of waiting, the door opened. Troy looked weird... like he was angry, and... and yet he was about to cry. "What are you doing here?" He asked, his voice was weird too.

"Um, I was hoping we could talk." I said, taking a step closer, attempting to get into the house, Troy wouldn't move. What was he up with him?

"Okay... let's talk. When are you leaving?" Troy asked.

I let out a small laugh. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb... when are you leaving for New York?"

I knitted m eyebrows together. "Who told you about that?"

"So you are leaving?"

All of a sudden I realized what this was all about. "No, Troy, I'm not. Brandon asked me to go and I said no. Whatever Gabriella told you was lie."

"Wait... what?" Troy asked, I finally pushed my way inside the house. "You mean you're not leaving?" Troy asked, confusion in his (oh so perfect, as I was starting to notice) eyes.

"Yes... Troy I stayed for you." I said, usually I would hate myself for saying something that sappy, but it was just so great to say it out loud. If only it didn't have to end.

"Troy?" I heard another voice, higher. I turned to look at Gabriella, dressed in well... nothing, except for Troy's shirt! "Why did you get out of bed so soon? You know I like to sleep in after- oh, his Sharpay! Did you come to say goodbye?"

I looked from Troy to Gabriella then back to Troy for an explanation. He was as speechless as I was. I couldn't believe this was happening. "Actually yes... I am."

Troy picked this moment to talk. "Come on Sharpay, you can't possibly believe that-"

"I believed a lot of things that were lies." I said. 'I think I'm just going back to New York, things there seem to make a little more sense."

"Oh, well enjoy yourself... and don't get mugged." Gabriella said with a fake smile.

"Thanks... I hope you two have a nice life." I said, I heard Troy calling after me, but I tried my hardest not to pay attention, I just kept walking. I was leaving, and that was that. 

**This was a sad chapter. A very sad chapter, but don't abandon hope my friends. Do you really think Troy would let Sharpay leave? Because I don't.**

**Oh, and someone asked about my next story, yes it will be a Troypay, and I hope to get it up soon. I just want to write a few chapters first to make sure that it looks on paper as good as it sounded in my head. So keep an eye out for that. **

** - LL4E**


	15. Airport

**Hello people. Enjoy the chapter**

Troy's POV

I looked at Gabriella with horror in my eyes. I couldn't believe she had the nerve to do that. I seriously felt like Gabriella had just stabbed me. I felt like such an idiot... I didn't speak... more like I couldn't speak. Gabriella was still standing there... a huge, triumphant smile on her face, and wearing a shirt that I had sloppily left on the floor of my room. She looked as if she had won some sort of a battle.

"Look Troy... I know you might be mad now, but if you take a moment to look back, I did it all for you... I mean, think about your future... that girl would have ruined everything for you and me both." Gabriella approached me, and wrapped her arms around my waist. "I'm good for you Troy. You may not see it but I do."

I shrugged her arms away from me and rubbed my temples, trying to get my thoughts in order before I spoke. "Gabriella... what the hell did you just do?"

Gabriella gave me a nervous smile. "Weren't you listening? I sent her away. Troy she doesn't love you like I do."

"Gabriella... I don't love you how I love her." I said. And that was the first time I admitted it. My mind was barely keeping up with the nine word sentence that I had just uttered. So this time I wasn't able to sugar coat any of it. She had to hear it, I just didn't think it would take this long for her to realize it.

Gabriella's face turned into a glare. "You're her stepbrother Troy. Your father adopted her. And she's never been anything but cruel to you, she only came back so she could get your money. Don't you get it? I love you more than she ever could! I can give you something instead of just leaning on you and your inheritance for the rest of my life! Do you know what people would say if you two were together!? They'd call you incestuous! And do you know what they would say about me? I'd be the girl who you dumped for your crazy, spoiled, ungrateful, orphaned sister!"

"I don't care! I love her! Don't you get that? And she loves me!"

"Then why isn't she here Troy!? If she loved you like you said she did, then she would stay here and fight for you like I'm doing right now! Tell me why she isn't here and I'll leave you alone!"

There was a silence. "You're wrong Gabriella. Leave."

"Troy, face it. She was down right happy when she saw me here. She thought that she would have to lie to you, and tell you that she loved you. I gave her a chance to bail, I didn't tell her to do anything. She's probably out there with Brandon, boarding that plane to" Gabriella looked at me and smiled. "Troy, what was supposed to happen happened. Now we know we can make it through anything! Troy! We belong together!"

"Gabriella... we never belonged together."

Gabriella was silent for a moment, "She doesn't have money! She doesn't have a home! After she graduates from that school, she has no where to go! Without your money she's nothing. Don't you see Troy? She would rather be alone in the world than be with you! She's out there right now with no where to go! She'd rather be out there all alone than be with you!"

Then I realized it. She was leaving. She was on her way to New York she'd probably left already. There was no point in me fighting for her, she wanted Brandon, not me. She only came here so she could go back to New York, and yet that wasn't enough to stop me from running after her.

Sharpay's POV

This was it. The last few days had been hell, and now I was getting to leave it all behind. So I should have been happy... right? Then how come I wasn't? I just wanted to go home, the only problem was that I really didn't know where that was anymore.

I had no place in Albuquerque anymore, and New York wasn't exactly an option anymore. I mean, I guess it sort of was, but I didn't want to go somewhere that I only got into because someone wanted to get me out of here. But at the same time, I couldn't stay in Albuquerque. I had no reason to be here anymore, I didn't have any place. I didn't want to have anything to do with Troy at this point. I mean, after you almost confess your love for your stepbrother only to realize that you walked in on him and his girlfriend having sex, there is really no going back. Anyways, I seriously had no place to go. This sucked.

I wanted to go home. But I had no home. This was not a good realization to make after the week I'd had. I mean really, at this point, hell seemed to be an understatement. For the first time in my life, I didn't feel like screaming, I didn't feel like doing something stupid that would land me in the police department. I felt like crawling under a rock and staying there forever. Or better yet... I felt like being someone different. Someone who didn't have to deal with stuff like this so often. Someone who would be happy to settle down a small town and being a stay at home mom forever. Someone who liked smiling for cameras and was fine with being arm candy. Someone more like... Gabriella. This sucked. Wanting to be more like the person you hated most.

I heard my phone ringing. After seeing Troy's name on my caller ID, I was pretty sure that I was going insane. I felt anger, sadness, dizziness and tears welling up in my eyes all at the same time. Even though my mind was going into overdrive, my hands reflexively opened up the phone and brought it to my ear.

I just was standing there, completely silent, with the phone pressed against my ear. "Hello... Hello? Shar, are you there?" I heard the voice say.

Then something inside me clicked. Troy was on the phone. He wanted to talk to me. "Why are you calling me?" I asked. Not to be rude or anything my brain was still not in complete control of my actions.

Troy was quiet for a minute, then he spoke again. "Look, I know you're leaving, I was on my way after you... until I got the bright idea to call you."

"Why? You're with Gabriella. Remember?" I asked.

"No. You have to believe me Pay, nothing happened."

"She was wearing your shirt Troy. She came out of your room. How can you possibly expect me to believe-"

I could hear Troy breathing into the receiver. He sounded breathless... almost like he was running. "Look, I know how it looked. And I know that you're planning on leaving... with him, but first, please just listen to me."

"What are you talking about? You mean Brandon? Troy, like I was saying I wasn't going to leave... I came to your house to tell you that we... you know what? I don't have to explain myself to you, because we were nothing Troy. You told me that we were nothing." I hated this. I hated myself. I hated not being with Troy. But at the same time, I hated not being able to just forget about Troy and move on.

"Is that what you want to hear? That I don't love you? That since you were jus here for the money you should just take it and leave?" Troy asked, now, not only did his voice sound breathless, but his voice was now cracking. "Sharpay... what exactly is so wrong with you staying here?"

"Troy... where the hell are you?" I asked.

"You didn't answer my question because you know I'm right." His voice didn't sound breathless anymore I could almost hear him smiling. This was too much. It was like he saw right through me, which was a definite first.

"You're wrong. You want to know what's so wrong with me staying here? This is a just stupid small town. And I already made the mistake of putting down a root here. I'm leaving, I don't want to be stuck here until my life turns into a bad episode of Desperate Housewives."

"Well if you really mean it then say it to my face." He said, only I heard it twice, once from my phone, and secondly, from behind me. "Look Shar... I know that you're mad... and you have the right to be. But can you at least be rational?"

"I'm not mad Troy." I said, finally turning to look him in the face. He looked we straight in the eye with this look. It was like he was begging me with his eyes, but at the same time he was looking into me... getting into my head and looking at the part of me that was screaming for me to stay. I immediately looked away. "I feel stupid... but not mad."

He lifted my chin so tat I had no choice but to look up into his eyes. "Stay." He said softly. It wasn't a command, but I felt as if some force was pulling me. My eyes were locked on his.

I forced myself to look away. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Didn't we already go over this?" I asked, crossing my arms. "I hate it here."

"Do you hate me?" He asked.

I looked away. "I'm not going to answer that." I said. _New Jersey, that's my home now_ I said to myself in my head. _New Jersey_ I repeated, trying to get myself to believe it.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't hate you Troy! I never did!" I admitted. "But that doesn't make a difference anymore now does it?" I muttered.

"It does matter." Troy said, sounding sincere. "I want you to stay... please."

I tried extra hard to make my voice sound acidic. "I can't stay. People here hate me! And let's face it Troy we never had anything worthwhile."

"Yes we did Shar. Don't deny it." He said, his tone turning serious.

I lost control. It was like my mouth was moving but my brain couldn't keep up. "Okay so what if we did? Huh? So what if we were perfect for each other? Would it make a difference? Would we just pretend like nothing happened? What would that do Troy? I have to leave! It's the only thing that makes sense!"

"Is it what you want to do?"

"Does it matter!?"

"Yes it does."

"Well then yes, I want to stay. But I still have to leave. Now tell me, has anything changed?" I screamed. I didn't even care that there were people staring. I didn't even care that this entire conversation would probably find its way one youtube on way or another... I just wanted this all to be over.

"Yes, now I know that I'm not just being selfish. Shar, I love you." For a minute, it was like my heart stopped. The rest of the world seemed to melt away, but not in the same way it did right before I fainted. "And if that isn't enough to make you stay then it's probably better that you leave."

It was at that moment that I realized that I was crying. I wondered if I'd been crying for a while or if I just started, but at that point it wasn't exactly top priority in my head. "Troy, I..." I started. But there was nothing I could really think to say. I wanted to stay... I wanted to tell him that I loved him, but at the same time there was this little nagging voice in the back of my mind telling me that I had to leave, that there was no other way.

"Shar... you can't possibly imagine how stupid it was for me not to tell you that I loved you any sooner, if I had maybe the thought of leaving never would have crossed your mind. But if you really love me back... please don't do this." And that was it. I couldn't go through with it. I threw myself into Troy's arms and our lips crashed together. That little nagging voice in the back of my head shut off completely. And it was like I had spent my entire life falling, and I had finally landed. It was hard for me let him go, but eventually oxygen deprivation got to me.

"I-I don't want to leave." I managed to say. "I want to stay here with you. I love you Troy."

Troy smiled. It was so weird how that look of complete and total wholeness in his eyes made me feel so much better about... everything. It was like somehow everything he did brought me to a new high, and trust me, I never wanted to come down. "You have no clue how much I've wanted to hear you say that." I smiled back up at him. And all of a sudden, it was like my mind wasn't flooding anymore. It was like, everything was simple. And I was happy.

**Ahh... happiness. This was the last actual chapter, I guess I could do an epilogue... but I don't see that happening any time soon. I was thinking of making a sequal, but if I do, it won't be up any time soon. I'm sort of sworn off sequals for a while. So for now, we can all just imaging that Gabriella gets drunk and tries to flie off the top of the Empire State Building!! I'll leave you with those happy thoughts. Bye for now. - LL4E**

**P.S. Thank you to my awsome readers. You guys totally rule!**


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